IBM, AMD To Tout New Wares at Server Blade Summit

In conjunction with its storage partners McData and QLogic, IBM, Somers, N.Y., will introduce a McData SAN switch that fits into its BladeCenter chassis, said Tim Dougherty, director of IBM's eServer Blade Center. The new switch will be available in May, he said.

IBM also is adding a Cisco fiber switch to the BladeCenter portfolio, another new product that will be rolled out at the show. Pricing for the Cisco Systems Fiber Intelligent Switch Module for IBM eServer BladeCenter will start at $4,999 and will be available in April. IBM already offers a Cisco copper switch for BladeCenter, Dougherty said.

In addition, IBM is bundling a free, six-month evaluation of VMware with every BladeCenter shipment, Dougherty said. The software is about a $15,000 value for customers that would normally purchase VMware separately.

IBM also is providing integration between VMware and IBM Director, BladeCenter's management software, so system managers can use VMware to manage virtual machines from the same console they manage physical machines with Director, Dougherty said.

Also at the Server Blade Summit, AMD is launching a new low-power, high-performance chip that is well-suited for blades and other technologies in data centers that have limits on power consumption, said Gina Longoria, Opteron product manager at AMD, Austin, Texas.

The new AMD Opteron 248 HE chip is designed for blade servers, custom workstation and storage servers that require lower-power infrastructure than a standard processor, Longoria said. "Many of these systems are in dense environments such as data centers that have a limited power budget or power consumption restraints," she said.

The 248 HE chip provides as much performance as its standard AMD 248 counterpart, but at lower power consumption and a higher price, she said. The chip is priced at $851 per chip at quantities of 1,000, while 1,000 quantity pricing for the standard 248 chip is $455.

The new 248 HE chip will be available Wednesday and is designed for two-processor servers. A one-processor version of the chip, the 148 HE, will be available in June, and an 848 HE chip designed for four-way and eight-way systems will be available in May, Longoria said.