IBM debuts new Linux-only server
Source: CNet News
IBM will announce a new low-end server Wednesday, its first Power processor-based system that can run the Linux operating system without needing IBM's AIX as well.
IBM's pSeries machines already are available with Linux but have also required AIX, IBM's version of Unix. Now, as expected, Big Blue has modified Linux sufficiently that its p630 servers will start up without AIX.
The p630 is the lowest-end product to use IBM's 64-bit Power4 processor, and Big Blue is positioning the product as a lower-cost Linux alternative to Hewlett-Packard's Itanium-based offerings. Itanium, like Power4 and Sun Microsystems' UltraSparc, is a 64-bit processor that can communicate with much larger amounts of memory.
IBM acknowledges there isn't much of a market yet for Linux on the pSeries machines, but it hopes experimental customers such as those needing to perform scientific calculations will gravitate toward the new p630 systems.
