IBM Changes Economics of UNIX Computing POWER5 Systems Deliver up to Triple the Performance of HP and Sun, Breakthrough Micro-Partitioning Technology Lets Each Processor Do the Work of Many

ARMONK, N.Y.--July 13, 2004--IBM today changed forever UNIXR computing with the introduction of new eServer(TM) p5 systems, an advanced line of UNIX and LinuxR servers that use POWER5(TM) microprocessors and Micro-Partitioning(TM), an IBM Virtualization Engine(TM) technology, to achieve unprecedented computing performance and reduced costs for a wide range of business and scientific applications. The new eServer p5 systems are the result of a large-scale, three-year research and development effort at IBM extending beyond traditional UNIX servers with mainframe-inspired features that are designed to help businesses thrive by providing higher utilization, massive performance, greater flexibility, and lower IT management costs.

The new IBM eServer p5 systems, based on the POWER 5 microprocessor, give clients choices of implementing different solutions - ranging from a 2-way server to a 16-way server - all leveraging the industry standard Power Architecture(TM) and designed to deliver the most potent performance and scalability ever available on the entry and midrange UNIX platform, according to widely used industry benchmarks.

Using as few as one fourth the number of processors, eServer p5 systems outperform HP servers in the significant Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-C(TM) benchmark test. The new eServer p5 systems shattered world records for select transaction processing, Web speed, Java(TM) performance and other business applications beyond expectations, in some cases beating HP's and Sun's performances by two and three times. Additionally, the new IBM systems are designed to save customers significant IT costs.

"Today, IBM is heralding the next generation in the UNIX industry, marked by extreme performance, efficiency and flexibility," said Adalio Sanchez, general manager, IBM eServer pSeriesR. "We've invested tremendously in new technologies, like the POWER5 microprocessor and the Micro-Partitioning technology in the IBM Virtualization Engine, derived from 40 years of mainframe innovations. This will transform the technology landscape and economics of owning and running UNIX systems. Our new UNIX systems will allow businesses to respond quickly to changing market conditions in the on demand era."

In the new computing era, client demand will shift towards systems that offer breakthrough tools like the Micro-Partitioning technology in IBM's Virtualization Engine, which is designed to significantly improve utilization and reduce IT costs. The new eServer p5 systems are the first UNIX systems designed to enable clients to run multiple (up to ten) virtual servers or Micro-Partitions on a single microprocessor letting it do the work traditionally done by many. This allows businesses to better utilize processors and automatically balance processor partitions in less than one second to meet changing on demand business needs. IBM eServer p5 systems allow for exceptional server consolidation and mixed workloads on a single system by giving businesses the capability to run multiple different operating systems simultaneously.

The new AIX 5L(TM) V5.3 operating system also enables clients to reduce costs by taking advantage of mainframe inspired characteristics in reliability, scalability and business continuity.

IBM Power Architecture technology has seen remarkable revenue growth since the introduction of the POWER4 microprocessor in 2001, and is now an industry leading 64-bit architecture. IBM has grown its UNIX server share more than any other vendor in each of the last 8 quarters, according to IDC. According to IDC, in Q104, IBM was the fastest growing UNIX server vendor and compared to Sun and HP, was the only major vendor to grow UNIX revenue year to year, gaining 15 percent of revenue share, while Sun and HP both lost UNIX revenue share. IBM's new p5 servers are completely compatible with the current server generation, the eServer pSeries, and provide customers with a seamless transition to the new generation.

Unprecedented Benchmark Performance - eServer p5 Systems Outperform HP and Sun

The IBM eServer p5 systems have already set performance records in diverse applications, such as online transaction processing, enterprise resource planning (ERP), file sharing, and high performance computing applications such as fluid dynamics. Among the specific performance marks currently held by various eServer p5 systems:

TPC-C running DB2: the p5-570 system holds the record for the fastest 16-way result, is the only 16-way system in the TPC-C top ten list by performance and beats a 16-way HP Integrity system by 168% and a 64-way HP PA-RISC system by nearly 50% (1). SAP: the 8-way p5-570 achieved the best-in-class two-tier SAP SD Standard application benchmark result, and the 16-way p5-570 achieved the best-in-class two-tier SAP SD Standard Application benchmark result (2) SPECfp_rate2000: the 8-way p5-570 system holds the record for the fastest 8-way result, besting an HP PA-RISC system by 298% (3) SPEC OMP2001: the 16-way IBM eServer p570 holds the record for the fastest 16-way result, 335% faster than a 16-way HP Superdome (4) The IBM eServer p5 systems stand together as one of the most decorated families of systems in the history of performance benchmarks:

Two and a half times better price/performance than HP PA-RISC, when comparing the price/performance results of 4.56 $/tpmC on an IBM eServer p5-570 running DB2 versus the price/performance result of 11.66 $/tpmC on an HP9000 Superdome running Oracle Database 10G Enterprise Edition using the TPC-C benchmark (5)

Over four times the processing power of HP PA-RISC systems (6) Twice the processing power of HP Integrity systems, when comparing the result of 5,288 est. OpenMP applications on an IBM eServer p5-520 versus the performance result of 2,637 OpenMP applications on an HP Integrity rx2600, using the SPEC OMP2001 benchmark and when comparing the result of 13,613 est. OpenMP applications on an IBM eServer p5-570 versus the performance result of 6,886 OpenMP applications on an HP Integrity rx7620 (7)

Sun requires 72 processor cores to equal our 16 way performance (8) On more than 35 standard benchmarks for computing, IBM eServer p5 systems are the #1 performing servers (9) Performance Fueled by POWER5, AIX 5L and Micro-Partitioning Technology in the IBM Virtualization Engine:

POWER5. The new POWER5 microprocessor features 276 million transistors per processor, and is manufactured with IBM's 0.13-micron copper wiring and SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) technologies. POWER5 defies historic focus on clock speed for performance with unprecedented levels of integration. POWER5 integrates not only multiple microprocessor cores in silicon, but elements of memory and task management that have long been outside the chip.

IBM Virtualization Engine. IBM's Micro-Partitioning technologies, which are part of the Virtualization Engine's allow each processor to be subdivided into as many as 10 "virtual servers." This allows eServer p5 servers to consolidate multiple independent workloads resulting in an easily managed virtual server farm. IBM Virtualization Engine also enables a single console for managing systems of all types and a broad set of systems services for workload management and provisioning.

Next Generation of AIX 5L. The new IBM eServer p5 systems can simultaneously support AIX 5L V5.2, the new AIX 5L V5.3, or Linux on POWER distributions in separate dynamic partitions, all on the same system, which makes migration from AIX 5L V5.2 to the new AIX 5L V5.3 easy for customers. Through a flexible resource model, AIX 5L V5.3 allows customers to measure and record multiple workload resource usage and utilize dynamic resource allocation of processors, Micro-Partitioning, memory and I/O resources. The new generation of AIX 5L also provides automatic allocation and balancing of resources across multiple Operating Systems images.

OS Choices. Clients can run AIX5L V5.2, AIX 5L V5.3, and Linux

(RedHat and Novell SUSE). System Choices. The initial wave of eServer p5 systems will consist of three distinctive servers to fit a variety of clients needs - from small to medium-sized businesses to large enterprise-level clients. The deskside or rack-mount p5-520 will be a two-way, entry level system using a 1.65 GHz POWER5 microprocessor with up to 32GB of memory running either AIX 5L or Linux. The deskside or rack-mount p5-550 will scale up to 4-way, and be equipped with up to 64GB of memory running the 1.65 GHz microprocessor, also running either AIX5L or Linux. And the p5-570 will scale up to 16-way, with a 1.9 GHz POWER5 microprocessor, and be able to run either the AIX5L or Linux operating systems. Additionally, there is a p5-570 Express model available, running a 1.5 GHz processor and up to 256GB of memory, designed to meet the need of growing small to medium business firms with an entry price that enables even small business clients to access the flexibility provided by one of the industry's most powerful UNIX servers.

Clients Look to eServer p5 for Performance, Scalability and Reliability

Penn State

Penn State, a leading U.S. university and long-time IBM pSeries clients, has ordered new p5-520 entry level systems running AIX 5L 5.3, as a means to grow its web services and e-mail support for more than 110,000 daily users across 24 campuses.

"We are looking forward to taking full advantage of the partitioning and virtualization capabilities that these new p5 servers offer, which will give us the flexibility to run multiple applications in one environment," said Steven Kellogg, Director of Advanced Information Technologies, Penn State. "With IBM's new POWER5 microprocessor at the heart of the eServer p5 systems, we expect to build upon an infrastructure that can quickly support our growing student, faculty, and staff academic applications."

Whirlpool Corporation

Whirlpool Corporation is the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of over $12 billion, 68,000 employees and nearly 50 manufacturing and technology research centers around the globe. The company markets Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Brastemp, Bauknecht, Consul and other major brand names to consumers in more than 170 countries.

"We need an infrastructure platform that is truly reliable, scalable and provides us the capabilities that we need to seamlessly grow our applications, so that we can focus on our customers and expand as a company. That is what the IBM pSeries and Power Architecture has done for us flawlessly over the years," said Robert Gamso, Senior Principal Systems Architect, Whirlpool Corporation. "With IBM's latest UNIX revolution in the IBM eServer p5 systems, we are going to take advantage of the new virtualization capabilities and powerful POWER5 microprocessors by running numerous applications in both production and test systems. This will enable us to dramatically lower our unit costs and give us the mainframe-inspired scalability and flexibility required in the computing platforms that we need now - and in the future."

Harry and David

Medford, Oregon-based gourmet gift retailer Harry and David is a global organization that ships fruits, chocolates and gift items for holidays and special occasions to customers all over the world. Harry and David upgraded its infrastructure to support the increased Web site traffic and ordering as the company has continued to grow. Through an implementation completed by Key Information Systems, Harry and David relies on POWER4-based IBM p670 and p690 systems running AIX 5L, DB2R Universal Database(TM) and WebSphereR Commerce Suite for web site support and customer-centric applications, as well as an IBM zSeries mainframe to power the retailer's order processing and customer fulfillment databases.

"Because of our gifting focus, we experience exponential volume on our Web site around the holidays and continue to grow each year," said Bill Baumbach, Vice President and CTO of Harry and David. "With the IBM Power Architecture at the heart of our systems, we know we are getting a highly reliable and scalable server platform that can be quickly expanded to meet the increasing capacity demands of this cyclical business. And with the availability of the new POWER5 systems, we can continue to optimize our existing platform investment to scale for continuous growth."

IBM eServer p5 570 Express

With this announcement, IBM also introduced for the first time a UNIX server designed specifically for growing, price-conscious midsized businesses. The IBM eServer p5 570 Express is the latest addition to IBM's growing portfolio of server and storage offerings designed for medium business clients. It is a two-to-eight way system powered by a 1.5GHz chip with up to 256GB of memory. This powerful server allows SMB customers to start small and grow with their businesses. It includes features that allow clients to improve IT optimization, employee productivity, and to safeguard data, which helps dramatically reduce overall operating expenses, including hardware costs and software licensing where the software is licensed on a per processor basis.

IBM Software Supported Across All eServer p5 Systems

Along with delivering IBM software solutions and various application support, IBM eServer p5 product line organizations have been working with more than 1,000 ISVs to help deliver UNIX and Linux OS-ready eServer p5 solutions to clients. Working with thousands of ISVs, IBM is helping software and solution providers target and drive UNIX and Linux solution revenue.

Additionally, IBM delivers a broad portfolio of software offerings on the eServer p5 platform, spanning its WebSphere, DB2 Information Management, TivoliR security and systems management offerings. This wide level of support, gives medium size and large enterprise clients the capability to build, deploy and manage critical business and technical applications using AIX5L and Linux operating systems, which combine performance and flexibility into a cost-effective platform.

The new release of the AIX 5L operating system adds advanced security automation software components to help organizations more rapidly deploy IBM Tivoli software for access control, user provisioning, directory infrastructure, security policy compliance and risk management. With these optional components available on the new eServer p5 systems either pre-installed or available as a download, organizations can deploy enterprise-wide security and identity management across their servers, applications and business systems faster and at low cost.

IBM Introduces New eServer i5 Systems

Additionally, today, IBM announced improved scalability to the recently launched eServer i5 line of servers, the first servers in the marketplace with POWER5 technology. IBM is expanding the scalability of the eServer i5 570 to a 16-way server which delivers 20 percent more performance than the previous model, the 32-way eServer iSeries Model i890. The eServer i5 570 offers up to 160 Micro-Partitions, and supports multiple operating systems simultaneously including i5/OS, AIX5L, Linux and Windows 2003 server. The eServer i5 also features the new Reserve Capacity on Demand, enabling businesses to automatically access additional processor capacity as business needs change.

Product Pricing and Availability

The new eServer p5 line includes models 520, 550 and 570. The new IBM eServer p5-520 system has a starting price of $12,920. The IBM eServer p5-550 has a starting price of $22,100. The IBM eServer p5-570 has a starting price of $25,928. The IBM eServer p5-570 Express has a starting price of $28,659 (10). The new eServer p5 and eServer i5 systems will be available globally on August 31 through IBM Worldwide Sales and Distribution and IBM Business Partners.

About IBM

IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key IBM Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com. For more information on IBM's on demand strategy, visit http://www.ibm.com/ondemand.

Benchmark comparisons are based on published results for up to 16-way systems. TPC-C results current as of July 12, 2004 and all other results current as of July 12, 2004.

For further TPC information, please see http://www.tpc.org

For further SAP information, please see http://www.sap.com/benchmark/

For further Linpack information, please see http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/performance.pdf

For further SPEC information, please see http://www.spec.org

(1) IBM TPC-C results of 809,144 tpmC, 4.95 $/tpmC, configuration available as of 09/30/04, run on a 16-way 1.9GHz POWER5 IBM eServer p5-570 running DB2 Universal Data Base version 8.1 on AIX 5L V5.3 with IBM FAStT TotalStorage900 versus an HP Integrity TPC-C result of 301,225 tpmC, 4.56 $/tpmC, configuration available as of 4/15/04, running on a 16-way 1.5 GHz Integrity rx8620 running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Ed. 64-bit on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition 64-bit versus an HP PA-RISC TPC-C result of 541,673 tpmC, 11.66 $/tpmC, configuration available as of 12/31/03, running on a 64-way 875MHz HP9000 Superdome running Oracle Database 10G Enterprise Edition on HP UX 11.i, 64-bit Base OS Source: http://www.tpc.org.

(2) All IBM results to be submitted on July 12, 2004. All competitive results as of July 2, 2004. The 8-way IBM eServer p5 570 (1.90 GHz) achieved the best two-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark result as of July 13, 2004 (2,600 benchmark users, 1.99 second average response time, 260,330 fully processed line items per hour, 781,000 dialog steps/hour, 13,020 SAPS, 0.017 sec/0.019 sec average DB request time (dia/upd), 99% CPU utilization, 1,080GB total disk space) running IBM DB2 Universal Database 8.1, AIX 5.3, SAP R/3R Enterprise Release 4.70 solution. The 16-way IBM eServer p5 570 (1.90 GHz) achieved the best two-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark result as of July 13, 2004 (5,056 benchmark users, 1.99 second average response time, 506,000 fully processed line items per hour, 1,518,000 dialog steps/hour, 25,30 SAPS, 0.019 sec/0.022 sec average DB request time (dia/upd), 99% CPU utilization, 1,080GB total disk space) running IBM DB2 Universal Database 8.1, AIX 5.3, SAP R/3R Enterprise Release 4.70 solution. The SAP certification number was not available at press time and can be found at the following web page http://www.sap.com/benchmark.

(3) All IBM results to be submitted on July 12, 2004. All competitive results as of July 2, 2004. An 8-way IBM eServer p5-570 (1.90GHz) achieved a 249 SPECfp_rate2000 result compared to an HP 9000 rp7420-16 system which achieved a 62 SPECfp_rate2000 result. Source: http://www.spec.org (4) All IBM results to be submitted on July 12, 2004. All competitive results as of July 2, 2004. Based on SPEC OMP2001 (peak) result of 38,282 est OpenMP performance for 16-way 1.90GHz POWER5 IBM eServer p5-570 versus an 875MHz 16-way HP Superdome PA-RISC result of 8,788 est OpenMP performance. Source: http://www.spec.org

(5) All IBM results to be submitted on July 12, 2004. All competitive results as of July 2, 2004. IBM TPC-C results of 809,144 tpmC, 4.95 $/tpmC, configuration available as of 09/30/04, run on a 16-way 1.9 GHz POWER5 IBM eServer p5-570 running DB2 Universal Data Base version 8.1 on AIX 5L V5.3 with IBM FAStT TotalStorage900 versus an HP PA-RISC TPC-C result of 541,673 tpmC, 11.66 $/tpmC, configuration available as of 12/31/03, running on a 64-way 875MHz HP9000 Superdome running Oracle Database 10G Enterprise Edition on HP UX 11i, 64-bit Base OS. Source: http://www.tpc.org.

(6) All IBM results to be submitted on July 12, 2004. All competitive results as of July 2, 2004. Comparison based on tpmC/Processor on IBM 16-way p5-570 TPC-C result (809,144 tpmC, 4.95 $/tpmC, configuration available as of 09/30/04,) versus HP 9000 64-way TPC-C result (541,673 tpmC, 11.66 $/tpmC, configuration available as of 12/31/03) (http://www.tpc.org), current as of 07/12/04, 16-way SPEC OMPM2001 (peak) 38,282 est. versus 16-way HP server rp8400 (8,587) and 16-way SPECfp_rate2000 (460) versus HP 16-way HP 9000 rp8420-32 (110).

(7) All IBM results to be submitted on July 12, 2004. All competitive results as of July 2, 2004. Based on SPEC OMP2001 (peak) results for 2-way 1.65GHz POWER5 IBM eServer p5-520 with a performance measure of 5,228 est. OpenMP applications versus an HP Itanium-based rx2600 system with a performance measure of 2,637 est. OpenMP applications; and on SPEC OMP2001 (peak) result for 4-way 1.90GHz POWER5 IBM eServer p5-570 with a performance of 13,613 est versus an HP Itanium-based rx7620 systems with a performance result of 6,886. Source: http://www.spec.org. (8) All IBM results to be submitted on July 12, 2004. All competitive results as of July 2, 2004. Based on IBM 16-way p5-570 SAP SD 2-tier result compared to Sun 72 processor core E20K SAP SD 2-tier result current as of 07/01/04.

(9) All IBM results to be submitted on July 12, 2004. Full listing of results to be listed on IBM.com. Source: http://www.ibm.com/eserver/benchmarks (10) US. List Prices as of July 13, 2004. Prices are subject to change without notice and reseller prices may vary. System price includes optional AIX 5L lincense and one year of Software Maintenance for AIX 5L operating systems.

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