The Linux operating system took another step towards maturity today
as IBM announced its latest server, the p630. This is the first
time IBM has sold Linux on a Power-based server alongside servers
running its AIX version of Unix.
The server runs Linux on IBM's Power4 RISC (reduced instruction set
computing) processors.
While IBM admitted that Linux's primary place in the short term
will remain on low-end servers using Intel chips, the company hoped
it could help spur Linux adoption by combining the OS with its
high-end, best-performing chips, said Karl Freund, vice-president
of pSeries server product management at IBM.
"This is about the beginning of developing a market. The first step
is to have a product out there with the full weight and support of
IBM behind it."
Linux has become a popular choice for users trying to run Web
servers or e-mail servers on cheap Intel-based hardware. IBM,
however, is looking to push Linux toward handling higher-end
business software by pairing it with the well-regarded Power4 chips
that sit inside multimillion-dollar servers.
IBM has already made some steps in this direction by making it
possible to run Linux partitions on top of AIX in its RISC
servers.
The company expected the first adopters of the Linux p630 to be
software makers and resellers that can begin tuning the system for
end users. IBM has prepared a number of its own applications such
as the DB2 database and WebSphere software to run on the new
server.
The Linux version of the p630 will be priced at $15,477 (£9,877)
with a 1GHz Power4 chip, two 36Gbyte disk drives and 2Gbytes of
memory, compared with $16,977 for the same server running AIX.