IBM System p
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The System p5, formerly known as RS/6000 (for RISC System/6000), is IBM's current RISC/UNIX-based server and workstation product line.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 use the POWER5+.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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's first generation (1996) was capable of evaluating 100,000,000 positions per second.
[edit] See also
- Web-based System Manager, an AIX management software
- Dynamic Logical Partitioning
- Linux on Power
- List of IBM products
[edit] References
This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.
