IBM and Sun Microsystems next week will release dueling Unix servers one notch below their top-end models, fueling the flames in a price and market-share war.
On Monday, sources said, IBM will announce its p670, a 16-processor system featuring the Power4 processor, which was previously available only in the high-end, 32-processor p690 "Regatta" system that went on sale in late 2001.
The p670 will bring to IBM's midrange product line "partitioning" features, allowing a single machine to be divided into several servers.
Sun, meanwhile, will counterattack on Tuesday with a system code-named Starkitty, designed to fill the midrange slot. Shahin Khan, Sun's vice president of product marketing, acknowledged that the midrange market has been overlooked in Sun's product line.
The company was able to design the new system relatively quickly because the main "Uniboard" building block can be used across Sun's entire Sun Fire product line, Khan said, adding that Starkitty will fall between the 24-processor 6800 and the 72-processor 15K.
News source: Cnet
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