News.com Mobile
for PDA or phone
Login: Forgot password? | Sign up

IBM upgrades Power5+ to 2.2GHz

By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: February 13, 2006, 9:00 PM PST
Last modified: February 16, 2006, 4:53 PM PST
Tell us what you think about this storyTalkBack E-mail this story to a friendE-mail View this story formatted for printingPrint

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.

IBM plans to announce several new Unix servers Tuesday, including a midrange p5 570 system with faster Power5+ processors running at 2.2GHz.

Until now, the Power5+ ran at a top speed of 1.9GHz, the same top speed as its fastest Power5 predecessor. In addition to the speed boost, IBM introduced some new models with its Quad Core Module (QCM) technology, which puts two Power5+ chips in a single ceramic package that can plug into a socket that in the past would have been occupied by a single chip.

IBM has put a priority on boosting clock speed. Frequencies will jump to a speed between 4GHz and 5GHz with the next major processor, Power6, due in 2007. Boosting performance is a key element of IBM's competitive attack in the Unix server market against its top rivals, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

Big Blue also brought the 2.2GHz Power5+ to its p5 575, a system intended for high-performance technical computing tasks that's 24 inches wide--unusual when compared with the 19-inch width typical for rack-mounted systems.

IBM began selling its QCM systems in 2005 with the p5 550. "The 550Q was a raging success last quarter, outperforming our forecast by 2X," pSeries Vice President Karl Freund said in an e-mail to CNET News.com. Now the company is introducing a fuller product line.

The p5 510Q is 3.5 inches thick and has two 1.5GHz dual-core Power5+ chips. A higher-end QCM system with dual 1.5GHz Power5+ processors is the p5 520Q, which is 7 inches thick.

The p5 560Q has many as eight dual-core 1.5GHz Power5+ processors and also is 14-inches tall in a configuration made of two 7-inch building blocks. Models with a single building block also are available.

IBM also released the IntelliStation Power 185 Express workstation using single or dual PowerPC 970 processors.

 
Correction: This article misstated some configuration details of new IBM Unix servers. The p5 510Q and p5 520Q have 1.5GHz processors. A single p5 560Q can be 14-inches tall when configured with two 7-inch building blocks. And the Power 185 workstation uses single-core PowerPC 970 processors.

TrackBack

See links from elsewhere to this story.
 2 comments
Post a comment

TalkBack

15% increase in 18 months? Wow

Joe Customer   Feb 14, 2006, 1:21 PM PST

 Read more comments >
advertisement
Listen to the News.com daily podcast

Scan the 15 newest and most read stories on News.com right now. Learn more

Updated: 4:48 PM PST
View as:
Google admits Desktop security risk PlayStation 3 may be delayed a year IBM promotes making chips in the bath The great American vowel hunt iPod-using Olympians are uncontrived Apple ads MySpace: Murdoch's big hope, parents' nightmare If robots get too smart, he'll know how to stop them On the go with upgraded ears It rings, sings, downloads, but can you stand it? Chicago next on the broadband wagon Make way for the robo-Olympics Digital options lighten load for tourists Turin Games more popular on Internet than Athens AMD sees Indian growth doubling in 2006 RadioShack CEO resigns over resume controversy
Legend:
Older
Newer
Larger boxes indicate hotter stories.

Daily spotlight

Video: Apple adds new features to iWorks

CNET's Felisa Yang sees what the software has to offer.

Flying car ready for takeoff?

MIT students hope SUV with wings will fly on 100- to 500-mile hops.

SNL cult hit yanked from video-sharing site

NBC forces YouTube to delete the wildly popular "Lazy Sunday: The Chronicles of Narnia" skit.

Rock history
streamed online

Thousands of hours of vintage concerts, collected by the legendary promoter Bill Graham, are slowly going online.
Photos: Rock history
Video: Graham's collection

Perspective: The China Internet debate's going nowhere

CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says too many interested parties have a stake in maintaining the status quo.

High tech's trip to toyland

The toy industry's big play date was a digital extravaganza. But was it too much of a good thing?

A look at the Red Planet

Steven Squyres, a scientist for the Mars Exploration project, shows RSA attendees photos of the expedition.
Photos: A look at the Red Planet

Video: Can NSA look at your e-mail?

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., asks Yahoo spokesman and general counsel Michael Callahan whether the National Security Agency has access to the e-mail of private American citizens.

Newsmaker: Locking down Net defenses

Andy Purdy, a top official in DHS' National Cyber Security unit, says much work needs to be done.
Complete RSA coverage

New high-def DVDs spin confusion

Consumer are scratching their heads over what computers will need to be able to play next-generation discs.

Videos: Taking tech companies to task over China

House members condemn Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and other tech companies for kowtowing to Beijing.

Photos: Joining this fight club? Bring a pillow

For a St. Valentine's Day massacre in San Francisco, participants all brought something fluffy.

advertisement
CNET.com
Copyright ©2006 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | About CNET Networks | Jobs | Terms of Use