IBM Debuts New Blade Server

This week, IBM announced the IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20, a blade system based on the company's POWER Architecture. The JS20 will begin shipping in volume globally this month. The BladeCenter JS20 system extends blade technology to 64-bit computing, providing customers the choice of either POWER processor-based or Intel Xeon processor-based systems.

The new BladeCenter JS20 supports both SUSE LINUX and Turbolinux, with additional support for Red Hat expected in the second quarter of 2004. In the coming months, the AIX 5L operating system will also be supported. With a starting price of $2,699, the JS20 offers a lower-cost, high performance computing solution using the PowerPC 970 processor.

According to research from IDC, blade technology is the world's fastest growing server market segment based on server revenue, growing nearly 550 percent in 2003. IDC estimates that blade systems will account for one of every four servers by 2007. Recent data from IDC shows that IBM captured 43.5 percent of the blade server market in the fourth quarter of 2003.