In celebration of the major performance improvements brought by its latest round of hardware, IBM has (at least temporarily) ditched its "e-Business" sobriquet for one touting "Extreme Business."

The Star of today’s announcement is clearly the high-octane hardware that revamps Rochester’s entire server line — the first complete hardware refresh in two years. The announcement of 23 new servers across 5 server lines completely eclipses the release of OS/400 V4R5, one of the more minor releases in the OS/400 pantheon (see "V4R5 Brings Minor-League Enhancements to OS/400"). In a break from tradition, Rochester will continue to market its 7xx boxes — introduced last year with V4R4 — along with the new 8xx line. The date of general availability is still up in the air, but IBM says it should be in early August.

8xx

The announcement’s main attraction is the 8xx line, nine new servers, most of which are powered by IBM’s copper and Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) I-Star chip technology — the first server line to use this technology. (The exceptions are the two smallest feature codes in the 820 line, which sport Pulsar processors.) SOI lets the processor run faster while wasting less energy, giving a 20-30 percent performance boost over the Pulsar chip, which debuted last year in the RS/6000 S80.

The 8xx line scales from an 820 uniprocessor with CPW of 370 to Rochester’s newest behemoth, a 24-way 840 boasting CPW of 16,500 — which leaves the 740 12-way, currently Rochester’s largest box, in the dust. Even the 840 12-way more than doubles the 740 12-way’s processing power of 4,550 CPW ( Figure 1). DASD capacity of the top-of-the-line 8xx box is over 4 times that of the largest 7xx, and main storage is more than doubled. The 840 supports up to 18.9 TB of disk and 96 GB of memory.

The entry-level 820 features Pulsar uniprocessors or I-Star 2-way or 4-way processors and scales from 370 CPW to 3,200 CPW. The next rung up the ladder, the 830, features I-Star processors in 2-way, 4-way, and 8-way configurations and workloads from 1,850 up to 7,350 CPW.

Batch and Interactive. The 8xx hardware continues the policy introduced with the Sxx and carried over to the 7xx to let you mix and match batch and interactive (i.e. 5250) processing power. Each box comes standard with a small amount of its total CPW devoted to interactive processing, and optional interactive features let you "gate" the amount of total processing power that can be devoted to interactive. (A sore point with analysts and users in the past is that all the interactive power is in the box already; IBM just ships a "governor" that won’t let you get at the interactive power unless you pay extra for it.) As with the Sxx and 7xx boxes, it’s important to use IBM’s Workload Estimator (available at http://as400service.ibm.com/estimator) to gauge how much interactive performance you’ll need, as each increment of additional interactive performance raises the price of the box substantially. (Opting for more than the base interactive also raises the software pricing by one tier.)

Model 270s

This latest hardware release introduces a line of four new entry-level servers to take the place of IBM’s popular 170 line. However, Rochester is positioning this new line a bit differently than it did its model 170 "Invaders," which it announced in February 1998 with V4R2 and completely revamped with the V4R3 announcement the following August. The model 170 was designed to balance batch and interactive workloads for mid-sized shops that had traditional AS/400 applications but also wanted server performance.

Rochester designed the 270s — powered by copper Pulsar chips — in response to demands for a powerful, cost-effective Web server that could go head-to-head with Microsoft’s Windows NT and Sun Solaris in vying for the growing e-business market.

All the 270 models except the smallest (270-2248) are configured with only enough interactive performance to support system administration. Customers can add optional interactive features to the three larger models to handle a mixture of traditional and client/server, CPU-intensive workloads.

Java, WebSphere, and e-business type applications are very CPU-intensive and gobble up lots of processing power. The Pulsar chips in the model 270s boost performance 4-fold over the 170. By removing the interactive features from the base server, IBM says it can drastically reduce the price and thereby increase price/performance. For example, Rochester recommends the 170-2385 with CPW of 460 as a good box for Java, but it’s pretty pricey at $55,000 or more. A 270 with equivalent processing power costs about $18,000. IBM expects this Java box to draw more new customers and applications to the AS/400.

The smallest model 270 includes a small amount of interactive CPW and specifically targets small to mid-sized customers with traditional 5250 workloads who also want to get into some of the newer areas such as Java and WebSphere application serving. As these customers grow, IBM expects them to move up in the 270 line, adding interactive features as needed.

Overall, the model 270 line offers 13 times top-to-bottom scalability — from 150 to 2,000 CPW — that roughly overlaps the midrange to high-end of the 170 line and delivers more than triple the performance of the largest model 170 at the high end. However, the ratio of optional interactive to overall CPW is lower for the 270 line ( Figure 2). Despite their huge gain in overall processing power over the model 170s, the 270s’ maximum interactive CPW is exactly the same as that of comparable 170 processor tiers.

The Nitty-Gritty. All 270 models support up to 24 disk drives for a total of 421 GB of DASD. The two smaller models, the 2248 and 2250, support a maximum of 4.1 GB of storage, while the larger 2252 and 2-way 2253 support up to 8.2 GB. The 270s start at around $10,000 for a bare bones configuration, but plan on closer to $18,000 for the smallest 270 that’s adequate for Java Web applications. As with the 170, IBM allows no upgrades into or away from this line.

Model 250s

Rochester’s other new general purpose AS/400, the 250, theoretically replaces the 150, which IBM introduced at the end of 1996 and hasn’t updated since. But this new box also targets some of the same customers as the model 170 — small shops or branch offices running a traditional 5250 AS/400 workload. The 250 is even built on a 170 chassis with a Northstar uniprocessor.

The model 250 is the least expensive of all of the new AS/400s. For $7,400 or $11,000, depending on the model, the 250 comes ready to run with a standard software package that includes the AS/400 Client Access Family for Windows, DB2 Query Manager and SQL Development Kit for AS/400, and Query for AS/400. Unlike the model 150, the 250 is covered by AS/400 Software Subscription, and customers can buy additional licensed programs that can be covered in Software Subscription at a P05 level.

The Nitty-Gritty. The model 250 comes in two flavors: 75 CPW processing power with 20 CPW interactive and 50 CPW processing with 15 CPW interactive — nearly four times the performance of the model 150 (Figure 3). Like its father, the 150, the 250 supports only up to 10 disks, 175 GB of DASD, and an optional RAID-5 controller. Also, because it’s based on the old 170, it’s connectivity support is limited to 100 Mbps Ethernet adapters, 16 Mbps Token-Ring adapters, and the 333 MHz Integrated Netfinity Server (INS). Like the 150, the 250 is a self-contained line. You can’t upgrade to it or from it. The model 250 will be the only new AS/400 sold on IBM’s Web site, Shop IBM, in addition to being sold by AS/400 resellers.

Special-Purpose Boxes

This hardware release also features eight new special-purpose AS/400s. The AS/400 Dedicated Server for Domino (DSD) line features three models using 270 hardware and three using 820 hardware, and new SB2 and SB3 boxes leverage the 830 and 840.

DSD. The new 270 and 820 hardware powering Rochester’s six new DSDs provides significantly more capacity than was available with the 170-based DSDs (affectionately dubbed "bumblebees" in the user community because of their Lotus-yellow stripe), which IBM announced last August.

Although this announcement extends the DSD line across nine servers (including the original three 170-based models) it also requires you to choose your DSD very carefully. You can upgrade only within the DSD and only within a particular hardware footprint (i.e. 270 or 820). Current customers on 170-based DSDs who want the greater processing power of the newer 270 and 820 models can’t upgrade to them; they have to buy a whole new server.

On the upside, the new DSDs more than triple the number of simple Domino Mail users that can be supported on the high end by IBM’s estimates, although official Notesbench numbers aren’t currently available (see Table, below). The 820 4-way DSD supports up to 14,840 simple Mail users, while the previous 170 2-way DSD supported up to 4,300. These boxes boast four times the memory, up to 20 times more disk capacity, and three times the processing power of last year’s 170-based DSDs. As with their predecessors and the rest of the new servers announced today, these new DSDs support only Lotus’s most recent release of Domino, R5. Detailed ordering information should be available in May.

SB2 and SB3. New SB2 and SB3 models are designed specifically for three-tiered, processing-intensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain applications where the computing environment involves a database server, an application server (the SBx), and the client. They provide higher-octane alternatives to the SB1, which Rochester introduced in 1997 in conjunction with the 6xx/Sxx hardware.

DASD space is limited (in relation to database servers and/or other multipurpose servers) to minimize the use of processing power for non-application serving tasks. Unlike their predecessor, the SB1, these new models don’t require any specific software pre-loads, and in fact aren’t available with any. The SB2 is based on an 830-2403, and the SB3 is based on the 840 2418 and -2420. But choose carefully: Once you buy an SBx, you can’t upgrade to other processor points within the SBx line, nor can you upgrade to or from any other AS/400 line.

Two Server Lines, One Product Suite

The 8xx boxes provide dramatic growth at the high-end of the line, but they lack the granularity of Rochester’s earlier hardware releases. Because of this, IBM plans to market the 8xx boxes as an extension of the current 7xx boxes. To provide price parity with the new hardware, IBM is immediately reducing the prices of the 7xx boxes by 4-33 percent, with an average price reduction of about 20 percent.

This "joint marketing" provides many more options for upgrades. For example, a customer on a 740 8-way could move to the 740 12-way, an 830 8-way (which offers a 62 percent boost in CPW over the 740 12-way), or into the 840 line, depending on his needs.

In most cases, a 7xx customer who wants additional performance for traditional workloads will spend less money within the 7xx family rather than upgrading to a new 8xx model. Customers moving to new technologies such as server-side Java that generally see a higher ratio of CPU to I/O utilization may realize better performance with the 270/8xx models — and better price/performance also, as these shops typically don’t need (and don’t want to pay for) 5250 interactive capabilities.

Current model 4xx and 5xx customers who need to maintain the same serial number should upgrade to the 7xx while they still can, but it's probably a better value to hang in there with your old gear, then scrap it for one of the newer machines when they come out in August. Model upgrades to the 8xx are supported only from 6xx, Sxx, and 7xx machines.

Other Hardware Goodies

New high-performance features included in or available for 270 and 8xx boxes include:

• High-Speed Links
• Hot Plug PCI adapters
• 700 MHz Integrated Netfinity Server
• Gigabit Ethernet adapters
• High-Speed Token-Ring adapters

Upgrades to 8xx boxes also include migration towers to preserve existing SPD I/O infrastructure.

High-Speed Link. The hallmark of the AS/400 has always been highly efficient internal processes that keep the processor working continuously and thereby provide CPW that belies the box’s relatively low-megahertz processor.

In this release, the 8xx and 270 servers sport a new I/O architecture that increases I/O performance significantly. A new High-Speed Link (HSL) — currently used in the latest models of the RS/6000 — replaces the traditional bus for linking the central server unit and its I/O expansion towers.

Described as a "bus for buses" by IBMer Mark Olson, AS/400 brand management operations manager, the HSL is a duplex cable (available in lengths of 3, 6, and 15 meters) that hooks to the server’s main system bus and links to the I/O switching bridge on PCI expansion towers. Bundles of copper cabling increase the bandwidth over that of the old SPD bus, but the real boost in I/O performance comes from the duplex technology.

Conventional buses push data one way, then pause, switch directions, and send data back the other way. The HSL, on the other hand, pushes data out at 500 Mbps and simultaneously pulls it in at 500 Mbps, giving an aggregate sustained bus speed of about 700 Mbps. (Boxes with internal PCI buses use a slightly less high-speed HSL internally.)

You’d typically pair HSL links to form an HSL loop that provides redundancy and automatically routes I/O traffic through the quickest path. The number of HSLs supported varies from server to server. In the case of the 840, you can attach up to eight HSLs per system with three I/O expansion towers on each.

HSL was born out of Remote I/O (RIO), which was introduced on the 740 as an architecture for attaching both SPD and PCI buses. HSL takes that concept and externalizes it.

Theoretically, this HSL could be extended over greater lengths through the use of fiber-optic cable and could be used to connect not only I/O, but banks of servers of many kinds — AS/400, Netfinity, RS/6000, or any server hardwired to support HSL. Rochester has announced a "Product Preview" stating it intends to support HSL for connecting n-way Netfinity servers to 270 and 8xx model AS/400s. (Typically a Product Preview feature appears in the next release). You could even mix I/O and systems on the same physical cable.

This new I/O infrastructure has strong implications for shops doing data mining, IBM says, which usually involves unstructured queries to large databases. HSL also provides nice performance boosts for shops that depend on high-speed saves or communications.

SPD I/O Migration Towers. This hardware announcement completes the AS/400’s transition from SPD to PCI architecture. (PCI-based I/O was first supported on the lower-end 6xx models introduced in 1997 with V4R1.) But IBM understands that many of its high-end customers will have large investments in SPD I/O that they’ll want to preserve.

So with each 8xx upgrade, you’ll get a migration tower that hooks into your main processor via its own HSL, letting you leave all your existing SPD I/O in place. In most cases, the migration tower will be the carcass of your old 6xx, Sxx, or 7xx processor. IBM will simply remove the processor and add an adapter to the central electronics complex (CEC) to allow it to send data over the HSL. In the case of the larger 640/S30/730 boxes, which are too large to make practical migration towers, IBM will ship a separate migration tower.

Hot Plug PCI. Hot Plug PCI lets you add, remove, and replace hardware without taking the entire system bus down. It’s made possible by power control to individual card slots so that PCI I/O processors (IOPs) and I/ O adapters (IOAs) can be added, removed, or replaced while the system remains active. From the control panel, you quiesce a particular IOP so that the server stops sending commands to it. You can then pull the card out, replace it, and go reactivate the IOP. Before, you’d have to quiesce the entire system bus, which could affect a lot of IOPs.

Integrated Netfinity Server. A new Integrated Netfinity Server (INS) sports a 700 MHz Intel Pentium III processor and supports up to 4 GB of memory, three LAN adapters, and 2 USB ports. It provides a significant improvement over the 333 MHz model with a maximum of 1 GB of main memory that IBM introduced with V4R4 in February 1999.

High-Speed Ethernet and Token-Ring. The new 270 and 8xx hardware also supports Gigabit Ethernet and High-Speed Token-Ring. The Gigabit Ethernet card requires 1000Base-SX fiber cabling (it won’t run over RJ-45 or other copper cabling) and runs at a speed of 1 Gbps full duplex. (Current Ethernet on the AS/400 runs at 10-100 Mbps.) High-Speed Token-Ring supports communications at 100 Mbps over traditional copper cabling. The adapter will provide both an RJ-45 connector for attachment to Category 5 twisted pair wiring and a D shell connector for the standard IBM cabling system. Current Token-Ring adapters on the AS/400 provide connectivity at 4 and 16 Mbps.

Previews

During the announcement, IBM previewed the LPAR enhancements coming next year in V5R1. Currently, you need at least one processor for each partition. With V5R1, you’ll be able to set up multiple partitions for each processor, and even uniprocessor machines will support LPAR. Another big enhancement will be dynamic partitioning, which will let you schedule processor moves between partitions. Say, for example, you notice that a workload in one partition increases at night, while the workload in another partition decreases. If you have a four-way machine, you could set up each partition with two processors, then use dynamic partitioning to switch one processor from the underused partition to the one doing the work in the evening, then have them switch back to normal in the morning.

The next release should also see the debut of a direct attached 1- to 4-way full sized Netfinity server, which will provide support for larger NT-based applications to interoperate with the AS/400. Rochester says it intends this configuration to complement, not replace, current NT support through the Integrated Netfinity Server.