Big blue bigger and cooler with AMD (and clipart animation)

AMD fanboys rejoice! It's IT Blogwatch, in which IBM expands its use of AMD Opteron CPUs. Not to mention an animation created entirely from clipart -- hundreds of them...

Ben Ames tells us that Armonk is revving up for battle:

IBM said today that it will add two blades and three rack servers to its family of computers powered by processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. New to the lineup are the BladeCenter LS21 and LS41 blade servers and the System x3455, x3655 and x3755. IBM has carried systems based on chips from AMD since 2003 ... The new servers will use AMD's "Rev. F" Opteron processor, giving them an advantage over products like Sun's new Sun Fire line, which uses the older Rev. E design ... improved virtualization, an upgrade from DDR1 to DDR2 memory, and quad-core capability for future expansion ... a big win for AMD, which has steadily gained market share with its Opteron design but has seen rival Intel Corp. challenge that momentum with the recent launch of new server chips.

IBM also hopes to sell the servers based on their power efficiency. The company predicts that by 2007, data centers will be forced to spend more money on power and cooling than on server acquisitions ... The system reduces server heat emissions by chilling discharged air with a water-cooled door that covers the back of each rack. That helps the new servers take full advantage of the new chips.

 

El Reg's Ashlee Vance writes:

Like a big blue knight, IBM has come to AMD's rescue once again ... This odd shift in strategy comes just as Intel has released Xeon server chips that best Opteron on many fronts ... In a bizarre bit of marketing choreography, IBM refused to utter the names of the new systems during its press conference today in New York held to launch the boxes. Only the marketing mavens at IBM could come up with a justification for not actually naming the products they were announcing at a press conference ...

Only the wizards inside of IBM can answer why the company went whole hog with Opteron at this juncture. You can understand the decision on four-socket systems where Opteron still beats the heck out of Xeon. Even Dell gave Opteron the big squeeze on the four-socket front. But Intel just released the Woodcrest version of Xeon to customers, shipping a product that trounces Opteron on many benchmarks ... But why now? Why didn't IBM go ahead and buy into Opteron sooner given its obvious market share gains? ... Of all the Tier 1s to save Opteron now, IBM may have seemed the most unlikely.

Kachina Dunn notes:

Analysts are taking note of the renewed emphasis on AMD inside IBM’s walls, where lower-end servers run on Opteron chips but have had to share the road with Intel and IBM architectures. AMD has a lot riding on the success of the business-oriented line, as it attempts to keep up with Intel’s recent market momentum, driven largely by the release of the popular Core 2 Duo chips.

Phillip Fayers:

IBM [has] never really committed to the [Opteron] platform in the same which HP and Sun have ... AMD are rumoured to be moving back the official announcement of Socket F and Socket AM2 ... It would seem a little odd for IBM to go jumping the gun and launching systems before AMD have got around to officially announcing the technology they are based on. I'd guess that the only way IBM could launch today is if they sweep the whole Socket F thing under the carpet or do a joint announcement with AMD. The latter would confirm the rumours of closer ties between the two companies. It would also be a snub to Sun, who are reckoned to be the Tier 1 vendor with the closest links to AMD. It would also steal a little thunder from Sun's expected launch of a couple of servers and a workstation based on the new AMD technology due later this month.

David Jackson checks the Street's perspective:

IBM (IBM) lost server market share to Sun (SUNW) and probably also to HP (HPQ) during Q2, and actually saw declines in server revenue year over year. Part of the reason for that was likely IBM's failure to use AMD chips with better performance than comparable Intel chips. But now the two laggards in the server market, IBM and Dell (DELL), are both adopting AMD chips more widely in their server product lines. Dell's announcement to adopt AMD chips was made on its May 18th conference call. That will increase the competitive pressure on the vendors who are using AMD chips already: HP (HPQ), Sun (SUNW) and Rackable Systems (RACK). IBM's expansion of AMD chip use is obviously incrementally positive for AMD (AMD) and negative for Intel (INTC).

Buffer overflow:

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And finally... Animation created entirely from clipart [hat tip: John Klossner]

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.