International Business Machines Corp is adding reliability features found in more-expensive mainframe computers to server computers powered by Intel Corp chips, an analyst said.
The servers, code-named Summit, are a competitive threat to Unisys Corp, Dell Computer Corp, Compaq Computer Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co because of the enhancements, said Jonathan Eunice, a server analyst for consulting company Illuminata Inc.
IBM, citing industry data, says its US sales of Intel-based servers grew more than rivals in the third quarter.
Intel-based servers account for 25 percent of server-industry sales and are expected to make up 48 percent by 2005, IBM said, citing a forecast by market researcher International Data Corp. The upgraded IBM servers will likely be priced well under US$100,000, Eunice said. Mainframes, which are more powerful, generally cost more than US$1 million.
IBM, the largest computer maker, will likely be the first maker of Intel-based servers to sell upgraded machines using Intel's Pentium 4 Xeon chip, Eunice said. The chip will be less important to customers than the enhancements, Eunice said.
The features will let customers more easily connect 4-processor units to form systems running as many as 16 processors, even when some interconnection hardware fails, Eunice said. In addition, IBM has "very slick memory-protection features," he said.
Companies will use the enhanced servers to run mid-sized databases and Internet-related programs, Eunice said. They probably won't be powerful enough to run such programs as airline reservation systems or stock-trading systems, which typically are handled by mainframes, he said.
Mainframes are large, highly reliable corporate computers that tightly combine hardware and custom software. They can support thousands of users simultaneously and can be partitioned to run the same programs as hundreds of servers.
IBM spokesman James Sciales wouldn't say when IBM will start selling the servers, which the company plans to market under the brand name Enterprise X-Architecture.
In the third quarter, US sales of Intel-based servers by IBM increased 1.5 percent from a year earlier. For all servers, including machines running the Unix operating system, IBM's third-quarter sales increased 9.1 percent while those of all other major rivals declined, IBM said.
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