IBM debuts first Itanium 2

IBM this month announced its first Itanium 2 box – the xSeries 450 server – for mission-critical applications such as business intelligence, databases and customer relationship management.

The xSeries 450 has four processors and comes in three models: one, a 900 MHz machine with 1.5M byte of L3 cache and 1M byte of RAM; the other operating at 1 GHz with 1.5M byte of L3 cache and 2M byte of memory. The system has two 1 GHz processors with 3M byte of L3 cache and 2M byte of memory. Each can support as much as 40G byte of memory.

In addition, the server has six 64bit Active PCI-X slots for the addition of memory or peripherals and optionally support an additional 12 Active PCI-X slots with an expansion enclosure. The x450 also contains a dual-channel Ultra320 SCSI controller and dual Gigabit Ethernet adapters for connection to the network.

It has two hot swappable drive bays and supports as much as 146G byte of internal disk storage. The 450 also has hot swappable redundant power supplies and a Remote Supervisor Adapter, which allows out-of-band management when the network is down.

The 450 features a number of availability features for which IBM is known. Among them are Chipkill memory, hot swappable PCI-X adapters, and the Integrated Remote Supervisor Adapter, which allows the server to be remotely rebooted and diagnosed.

The xSeries 450 is available immediately starting at $26,000.