The Register: IBM to Sell Linux-Only Regatta Servers?

“IBM Corp last week announced that it has delivered the AIX 5L
Release 5.2 version of its Unix operating system for its pSeries
RISC-Unix servers… While most Linux customers don’t care much
about what IBM does or does not do in the pSeries line, my sources
at the company say that IBM might be readying a set of Linux-only
Power4-based ‘Regatta’ servers to take on the Unix installed
base–including Big Blue’s own AIX base. This would be a very
interesting development, indeed.

“IBM already supports Linux within logical partitions on the
four-way pSeries 630 ‘Regatta-LE’, the 16-way pSeries 670
“Regatta-M” and 32-way pSeries ‘Regatta-H’ servers. With AIX 5L
5.2, which starts shipping next week, the pSeries Regatta line of
machines gets support for dynamic logical partitions, which can be
configured with AIX 5.1, AIX 5.2, or Linux 2.4. These dynamic
logical partitions can be based on a single processor, as little as
256MB of main memory, and a single I/O adapter card that talks to
disk drives.

“This week, the pSeries line has also been improved to include
dynamic processor sparing in 16-way pSeries 670 and 32-way pSeries
690 Regatta servers. This capability allows customers who acquire
Capacity Upgrade on Demand (CUoD) configurations (which have extra
processors in the box to cover peak loads) to permanently and
transparently activate CUoD processors, in lieu of a failing or
failed processor, in these Regatta machines. Your run-of-the-mill
Linux servers don’t have such partitioning or sparing capabilities,
and IBM is well aware of this…”

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