IBM System p
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The System p, formerly known as RS/6000 (for RISC System/6000), was IBM's RISC/UNIX-based server and workstation product line.
In April 2008, IBM announced a rebranding of the System p and its integration with the System i platform. The unified product line is called IBM Power Systems.
History
Announced in 1990, the RS/6000 replaced the RT PC. This server family has undergone several name changes in its lifetime. It was originally a line of workstations and servers called RS/6000. The server line was then renamed to the eServer pSeries in 2000 as part of its e-Server branding initiative. With the advent of the POWER5 processor in 2004 the family was rebranded the eServer p5. Now with the global move of the server and storage brands to the System brand with the Systems Agenda, the family has been renamed yet again to System p5 in 2005. The System p5 now encompasses the IBM OpenPower product line. With the introduction of POWER6 processor models the new models are now being released under the System p brand, dropping the p5 designation.
Deep Blue
Deep Blue, an RS/6000-based supercomputer, was the first computer system to win a chess game against a reigning world champion (Garry Kasparov) under regular time controls. It is a massively parallel, 30-node, RS/6000, SP-based computer system enhanced with 480 special purpose VLSI chess processors. Its chess playing program is written in the C programming language and runs under the AIX operating system. Deep Blue was capable of evaluating 200,000,000 positions per second.
Processors
Early RS/6000s were based on the IBM POWER and POWER2 processor. After the development of the PowerPC ISA, many lower end servers and some workstations were based on PowerPC models such as the PowerPC 604e. Higher end servers and SP clusters were still based on POWER due to its excellent floating point performance, while the RS64 variant of the PowerPC was developed for commercially-based systems where integer processing and throughput are more important.
After developing the POWER4 processor the RS64 line was discontinued and the difference between throughput and number crunching optimized systems no longer exists. Nowadays System p machines mainly use the POWER5+ but also PowerPC 970 on for the low end and blade systems.
Newly introduced systems in 2007 use the POWER6 processor, such as the POWER6 based System p 570 and the JS22 blade. In addition IBM introduced during the SuperComputing 2007 (SC07) conference in Reno a new POWER6 based System p 575 with 32 POWER6 cores at 4.7GHz and up to 256GB of RAM with water cooling.
Features
All IBM System p5 and IBM eServer p5 machines support DLPAR (Dynamic Logical Partitioning) with Virtual I/O and Micro-partitioning.
System p generally uses the AIX operating system and, more recently, 64-bit versions of the Linux operating system. Sun Microsystems is also developing OpenSolaris port, currently experimental[1].
Current models
System p
- IBM System p5 505
- IBM System p5 505Q
- IBM System p5 510
- IBM System p5 510Q
- IBM System p5 520
- IBM System p5 520Q
- IBM System p 520 (POWER6)
- IBM System p5 550
- IBM System p5 550Q
- IBM System p5 550Q Express (4-8 POWER5+ CPUs) (Model 9133-55A)
- IBM System p 550 (POWER6)
- IBM System p5 560Q
- IBM System p5 570
- IBM System p 570 (POWER6)
- IBM System p5 575
- IBM System p5 590
- IBM System p5 595
IntelliStation POWER
- IBM IntelliStation POWER 185 (PowerPC 970)
- IBM IntelliStation POWER 285
BladeCenter
- IBM BladeCenter JS21 (PowerPC 970)
- IBM BladeCenter JS22 (POWER6)
Discontinued models
pSeries
- IBM eServer pSeries 610
- IBM eServer pSeries 615
- IBM eServer pSeries 620
- IBM eServer pSeries 630
- IBM eServer pSeries 640
- IBM eServer pSeries 650
- IBM eServer pSeries 655
- IBM eServer pSeries 660
- IBM eServer pSeries 670
- IBM eServer pSeries 680
- IBM eServer pSeries 690
OpenPower
- IBM eServer OpenPower 710
- IBM eServer OpenPower 720
IntelliStation POWER
BladeCenter
- IBM BladeCenter JS20 (PowerPC 970)
RS/6000
Some models were marketed under the RS/6000 POWERstation and/or POWERserver names.
 | This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. |
- IBM RS/6000 Model 220
- IBM RS/6000 Model 223
- IBM RS/6000 Model 22W
- IBM RS/6000 Model 230
- IBM RS/6000 Model 23S
- IBM RS/6000 Model 23T
- IBM RS/6000 Model 23W
- IBM RS/6000 Model 250
- IBM RS/6000 Model 25E
- IBM RS/6000 Model 25S
- IBM RS/6000 Model 25T
- IBM RS/6000 Model 25W
- IBM RS/6000 Model 320 (20 MHz POWER)
- IBM RS/6000 Model 340
- IBM RS/6000 Model 34H
- IBM RS/6000 Model 350
- IBM RS/6000 Model 355
- IBM RS/6000 Model 360
- IBM RS/6000 Model 370
- IBM RS/6000 Model 37T
- IBM RS/6000 Model 375
- IBM RS/6000 Model 380
- IBM RS/6000 Model 390
- IBM RS/6000 Model 397
- IBM RS/6000 Model 39H
- IBM RS/6000 Model 3AT
- IBM RS/6000 Model 3BT
- IBM RS/6000 Model 3CT
- IBM RS/6000 Model 40P
- IBM RS/6000 Model 41T
- IBM RS/6000 Model 41W
- IBM RS/6000 Model 42T
- IBM RS/6000 Model 42W
- IBM RS/6000 Model 43P
- IBM RS/6000 Model 44P
- IBM RS/6000 Model 520 (20 MHz POWER)
- IBM RS/6000 Model 530 (25 MHz POWER)
- IBM RS/6000 Model 540 (30 MHz POWER)
- IBM RS/6000 Model 550
- IBM RS/6000 Model 55L
- IBM RS/6000 Model 560
- IBM RS/6000 Model 58H
- IBM RS/6000 Model 595
- IBM RS/6000 Model 59H
- IBM RS/6000 Model 730 (25 MHz POWER)
- IBM RS/6000 Model 860 (Notebook)
- IBM RS/6000 Model 920
- IBM RS/6000 Model 930 (25 MHz POWER)
- IBM RS/6000 Model 950
- IBM RS/6000 Model 960
- IBM RS/6000 Model 970
- IBM RS/6000 Model 980
- IBM RS/6000 Model 990
- IBM RS/6000 Model B50
- IBM RS/6000 Model B80
- IBM RS/6000 Model E20
- IBM RS/6000 Model E30
- IBM RS/6000 Model F20
- IBM RS/6000 Model F30
- IBM RS/6000 Model F40
- IBM RS/6000 Model F50
- IBM RS/6000 Model F80
- IBM RS/6000 Model F85
- IBM RS/6000 Model G30
- IBM RS/6000 Model G40
- IBM RS/6000 Model H10
- IBM RS/6000 Model H50
- IBM RS/6000 Model H70
- IBM RS/6000 Model H80
- IBM RS/6000 Model M20
- IBM RS/6000 Model M80
- IBM RS/6000 Model J30
- IBM RS/6000 Model J40
- IBM RS/6000 Model J50
- IBM RS/6000 Model R10
- IBM RS/6000 Model R20
- IBM RS/6000 Model R21
- IBM RS/6000 Model R24
- IBM RS/6000 Model R30
- IBM RS/6000 Model R40
- IBM RS/6000 Model R4U
- IBM RS/6000 Model R50
- IBM RS/6000 Model S70 (RS64-II)
- IBM RS/6000 Model S7A
See also
- Web-based System Manager, an AIX management software
- IBM Hardware Management Console, a management appliance
- Dynamic Logical Partitioning
- Linux on Power
- IBM IntelliStation POWER
- IBM System i
- List of IBM products
References
This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.