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World's First Entry UNIX System With Copper Chips
Shatters Sun's Commercial Performance
SAN DIEGO, CA, January 24, 2000 -- IBM today
introduced the world's fastest 4-way Web Server, providing
companies with an affordable, yet powerful, foundation for
deploying potent e-business solutions. The first entry UNIX
server to implement performance-enhancing copper technology,
IBM's RS/6000 44P
Model 270 trounces a comparable system from Sun Microsystems,
Inc. in the critical area of commercial performance.
Powered by up to four 375 MHz POWER3-II microprocessors and
IBM's industry-leading UNIX operating system, AIX, the symmetric
multiprocessing (SMP) Model 270 is an ideal server for running
sophisticated e-commerce applications as well as the general
business applications used by small- and medium-sized companies.
"The Model 270 brings a new level of performance to the
entry UNIX server market," said Rod Adkins, IBM general
manager of RS/6000. "It provides the kind of serious
processing muscle previously available only in much larger
servers. And it's aggressively priced, making it an unbeatable
value."
Web Serving and Commercial Performance Leadership
The Model 270 became the world's fastest 4-way Web server
by establishing a new SPECweb99 benchmark record of 1359 simultaneous
connections. SPECweb99 is an industry-standard benchmark for
measuring Internet and application serving performance.
The Model 270 also offers excellent performance for commercial
applications, handily beating the comparable Sun Microsystems'
offering. Matched against Sun's 4-way 400 MHz Enterprise 450,
a 4-way Model 270 provides about 40 percent greater power,
according to SPECint_rate95, a benchmark that measures commercial
processing performance. An entry 4-way Model 270 is about
the same price as the 400 MHz Sun Enterprise 450.*
To complement this powerhouse server, IBM announced the RS/6000
44P Model 170, a uniprocessor system that contains either
a 333 MHz or 400 MHz POWER3-II copper chip microprocessor.
The design of this entry server is optimized for high performance
Web and application hosting, firewalls, Web caching, and messaging
solutions like Lotus Domino.
Copper Chip Technology
The blazing-fast performance offered by the Model 270 and
Model 170 is in part derived from the IBM-pioneered copper
wiring technology incorporated into the 64-bit POWER3-II chip.
Copper increases microprocessor performance substantially
over chips that use aluminum wire. A single POWER3-II chip
contains about 400 meters of copper wiring.
The only other UNIX server to contain copper technology is
IBM's high-end S80 enterprise server, which was announced
in September 1999.
Scalable and Reliable
The Model 270 and Model 170 are designed for seamless growth,
allowing companies to meet the unpredictable demands of e-business.
With the Model 270, customers can upgrade quickly and easily
from a one- to four-processor configuration and from 256MB
to 8GB of ECC SDRAM memory; five disk/media bays accommodate
up to 54.6GB of internal Ultra2 SCSI disk storage. The Model
170, which includes up to 2GB of ECC SDRAM memory capacity
and 72.8GB of Ultra2 SCSI internal disk storage, can be upgraded
from a 333 MHz to a 400 MHz microprocessor.
In addition, the Model 270 and Model 170 can be attached directly
to the IBM 2104 Expandable Storage Plus (Ultra2 SCSI), which
houses up to 10 bays of drives that can range in size from
9.1GB to 36GB each. The servers can also be attached directly
to the IBM 7133 Serial Disk System (SSA). Both provide terabytes
of highly-reliable, hot-swappable external storage.
The servers are exceptionally reliable. Each contains a built-in
service processor designed to continuously monitor operations
and take preventative or corrective actions. The service processor
also enables a variety of "lights out" remote system
management capabilities, such as communicating overall system
status, triggering a remote shutdown, and automatically re-starting
the system on loss of power.
Software developers are praising the new servers. "We
are very pleased to extend our relationship with IBM, by supporting
the new IBM Internet-ready RS/6000 44P Model 170 and Model
270 server product lines," said Asheem Chandna, vice
president of marketing and business development for Check
Point Software Technologies. "Check Point's Secure Virtual
Network solutions and RS/6000 provide key enablers for e-business
and e-commerce in the new Internet economy."
Pricing for the Model 270 starts at $16,995 for a single processor
system and $35,995 for a 4-way system. Pricing for the Model
170 starts at $10,495 for the 333 MHz-based system and $15,495
for the 400 MHz-based system.**
About IBM RS/6000
More than 1 million IBM RS/6000 systems have been shipped
to over 125,000 commercial and technical customers around
the world. The RS/6000 family of computers features IBM RISC-based
microprocessors and runs AIX, IBM's UNIX operating system.
RS/6000 delivers the industry's most complete UNIX offerings
by combining applications with hardware, software, service,
and support -- a combination that yields new levels of high
availability, scalability, system management, performance,
and Deep Computing capabilities.
Editor's Note: IBM news releases and fact sheets are available
on the World Wide Web at http://www.ibm.com. Additional information
on IBM servers can be found at http://www.ibm.com/servers.
Additional information on AIX can be found at http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix.
AIX is a trademark of IBM Corporation. UNIX is a registered
trademark of The Open Group. All others are trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective companies.
About Check Point Software Technologies
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is the worldwide leader
in securing the Internet. The company's integrated architecture
includes network security (FireWall-1, VPN-1, Provider-1 and
Check Point RealSecure), traffic control (FloodGate-1 and
ConnectControl), and IP address management (Meta IP). Check
Point Software solutions enable customers to implement centralized
policy-based management with enterprise-wide distributed deployment.
Via the OPSEC Alliance, Check Point Software's products
seamlessly integrate with "best-of-breed" products
from more than 200 leading industry partners. The company
has U.S. headquarters in Redwood City, California and international
headquarters in Ramat-Gan, Israel. For more information, please
call (800) 429-4391 or (650) 628-2000 or visit http://www.checkpoint.com
or http://www.opsec.com.
For more information
on SPECweb99 and SPECint_rate95, see http://www.spec.org.
* Priced with 4 processors, 256 MB RAM, 9.1GB disk storage.
** Manufacturer's suggested retail price; dealer prices may
vary. Prices
are current as of January 24, 2000 and subject to change without
notice. |
