IBM announces six-core System x servers 22 September, 2008 By Charles King

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* System x3950 M2: The memory of the x3950 is tuned so clients can take full advantage of virtualization on the system. In addition, the x3950 offers mainframe-like reliability, and high-efficiency power supplies and other features that can help users achieve up to 37 percent lower overall power consumption.

* Systems x3850 M2: With the x3850's fast performance and system efficiency, clients can support a large number of demanding business applications, such as ERP and databases on a single server. The x3850 also offers flexible scalability that allows clients to easily expand systems from four sockets to 16, so they pay for more capacity only when they need it.

The IBM System x3850 M2 and x3950 will be available with Intel Xeon 7400 processors in September, starting at $10,389 and $13,389 respectively.

The Pitch

IBM continues to define the high end of the x86 server market.

Mission Accomplished?

Though many consider the market for x86 servers to be an essentially monolithic space dominated by high volumes of low-end (one- and two-way) solutions, it is considerably more complicated. Make no mistake, vendors such as Dell and HP sell and ship literally tons of one- and two-way boxes. But the higher, four-way+ end of the market features solutions whose innovation rivals that of enterprise-class servers.

In this space, market research finds IBM consistently leading the pack with a roughly 60% share that is about three times that of its nearest competitor. There are two fairly simple reasons for the company's success in the high-end x86 market. First, delivering consistent, dependable high-performance requires multi-processor system experience, which IBM has in abundance.

But additionally, the company is the only major vendor developing its own chipset for such systems. While others have embraced Intel's commodity chipset designs and products, IBM continues to invest in and reap the rewards of its X-Architecture solutions. The result? Between them, the x3850 and x3950 own four new TPC and SAP benchmark performance records.

But pure performance is eclipsed by overall business value, and to our way of thinking, the new servers deliver there, too. In essence, IBM designed the x3850 and x3950 to take advantage of two ongoing trends among its enterprise customers: 1) the aggressive consolidation of x86 servers and workloads, and 2) the desire to maximize server energy efficiency.

At the same time, businesses do not wish to skimp on system reliability and flexibility. In other words, they would like to maintain their x86 infrastructures but want those servers to deliver performance analogous to UNIX and mainframe systems. Those customers and that part of the x86 market are what IBM aims the x3850 and x3950 to address. Overall, we believe that the company has succeeded. With this pair of new six-core System x offerings, we expect IBM will continue to maintain or even extend its attraction among enterprises that expect the highest returns from their x86 investments.

Charles King is Principal Analyst, Pund-IT Research, which emphasizes understanding technology and product evolution and interpreting the effects these changes will have on business customers and the greater IT marketplace. This article first appeared in the Pund-IT Weekly Review.