Re: Cheaper Servers?

[jpcarr@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

>From: <BOBC@ri-net.com>
>> Our iSeries machines are identical to the RS6000's and come off the very
>> same assembly line in Rochester Minnesota.  The only difference is the
logo
>> (the i vs p) and the OS loaded onto the box!>

>I thought that the iSeries has Service IOPs and the pSeries does not.
>Kinda remember Soltis saying: the only difference between a pSeries
>and an iSeries is that we rip out some hardware to go from p to i...
>Leif



Leif

This is what Dr Frank has said lately.   Great eye opening article if you
saw the whole thing about the future of the eServer.

John

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http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/resources/artarchive/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewarticle&CO_ContentID=14046&channel



<SNIP>
Lest you believe that only the processor hardware is converging, we are
also working to converge the I/O hardware on these three platforms. It is a
well-known fact that today there is a difference between the I/O of the
iSeries and the I/O of the pSeries. The iSeries uses I/O processors (IOPs);
the pSeries does not. This too will change as we move to an I/O
architecture that no longer requires IOPs.

The new I/O architecture, called InfiniBand, will (over the next couple of
years) replace the current Peripheral Component Interface (PCI) bus
architecture used in today's eServers. Because InfiniBand is a channel with
far more built-in intelligence than a PCI bus has, there will no longer be
a need for IOPs to provide that level of intelligence. As a result, common
I/O will exist across all eServers, including the zSeries and the xSeries.

The packaging of the eServers has already begun to converge. A close look
at the zSeries model z900 and the Regatta models of the pSeries reveals a
great deal of similarity in the physical boxes. Regatta borrowed heavily
from the zSeries packaging. IBM will use this same Regatta packaging for
the iSeries later this year, making the three server boxes almost
identical.
<SNIP>

I like this part.

<SNIP>

The iSeries pioneered the 64-bit PowerPC hardware technology that IBM is
now counting on to carry three of its four servers into the future. SLIC is
still the best example of eServer ware, and when it comes to operating
system support, what other IBM server can support Windows, Linux, AIX, and
OS/400? Maybe when zOS moves to PowerPC, we should consider running zOS in
a partition on the iSeries.
<SNIP>