IBM plans to unveil dual-core Power5 servers for SMB

IBM plans to unveil Tuesday a line of small- and midsize-business Unix servers based on its own dual-core Power5 processor.

The new servers will use the IBM's existing Power5 as well as the Power5+, a new processor that combines two dual-core Power5s and their cache together in one module. IBM was able to combine the components by shrinking the existing Power5 by nearly 40 percent, said Jeff Howard, program director at IBM Systems and Technology Group. Each of the servers can be installed with Unix or Linux operating systems.

The systems, offered under the Express brand for SMB, include the p5 505 Express, a 1U rack-mount system with one 1.65GHz Power5, 1 Gbyte of memory, two 73.4-Gbyte hard drives, and a DVD-ROM starting at $3,750. The server also can be configured with two 1.5GHz or 1.65GHz Power5 processors.

Also available is a 4U rack-mount systems, the p5 520 Express. The two-way server carries a price of $11,896 for two 1.9GHz Power5+ processors, 2Gbytes of memory and two 73.4-Gbyte hard drives.

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