IBM has introduced the first systems that shatter technical barriers to offer dramatically more scalable, workload-tuned computing on the x86 platform. The company’s new eX5 servers are the result of a three-year engineering effort to improve the economics of operating enterprise-sized, x86-based systems.
The eX5 portfolio marks IBM’s second family of 2010 systems designed for a new generation of demanding workloads and to significantly reduce costs of existing IT infrastructure. The new systems ride a wave of market share growth for IBM. IBM gained more revenue share than any of the major x86 server vendors in each quarter of 2009 and now holds nearly 20 percent share -- a 3.5 point year-over-year gain, according to IDC. The company also significantly outperformed the blade market in 4Q09, recording 64-perc ent revenue growth in blades and gaining 5.7 points, according to IDC.
The eX5 systems take advantage of integration with IBM middleware to create a highly virtualized environment that can give users a flexible, highly scalable system that can reduce the number of servers needed by half while cutting storage costs 97% and licensing fees by 50%.
A unique IBM silicon innovation allows processors on eX5 systems to access extended memory very quickly, an industry first and a leap forward that delivers the largest memory capacity in the industry. The IBM Enterprise X-Architecture chip is in its fifth generation with eX5 and leverages decades of IBM experience in integrating microelectronics to create first-of-a-kind silicon solutions.
IBM will introduce three ultra-scalable eX5 systems in 2010 – the four-processor IBM System x3850 X5, the BladeCenter HX5 and the System x3690 X5, an entry-priced server capable of enterprise-class operation that will become the most powerful two-processor server on the market.
