IBM Delivers Power5+ Unix Workstation

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

It is hard to forget that the Unix server business only really exists because there was a thriving Unix workstation business for many years before workstation vendors figured out that you could sell high-margin servers based on the same kinds of technologies that went into RISC/Unix workstations. While the days are long gone when Unix workstation volumes could fund the development of Unix servers, every little bit helps. Moreover, there are still customers who love Unix workstations and who are happy to spend extra money to run their Unix applications.

That's why IBM has rolled out the IntelliStation Power 285 workstation, the first Power5+ workstation in its lineup and the kicker to a Power4+ workstation, the IntelliStation Power 285, that Big Blue announced in June 2003. That's a long time to wait for a kicker, but the Power5 processors were a bit too big and a bit too hot to be used in workstations. This was also true of the Power4 processor (although IBM did launch the Power4-based Power 265 workstation even though it ran a little hot). The Power4 was IBM's first dual-core Power chip, which was launched in October 2001. If history is any guide, we shouldn't expect another Power chip generation in the IntelliStation lineups until the Power6+ chip ships in 2008 or 2009, but the odds are that IBM won't wait that long. For all I know, the Power6 will make a fine workstation chip--and I expect that it will, in fact. Moreover, IBM could always deliver a workstation based on the dual-core PowerPC 970MP processors, which run a little cooler. Even if each of the PowerPC 970MP cores do not provide as much oomph as a Power5+ core, you can probably jam four cores in the same space, so it might all come to the same. And, of course, IBM could go one step further and launch a quad-core workstation based on the new Power5+ quad-core module (QCM), which is used in the p5 550Q server that was announced back in early October. IBM has options. It is a matter of what customers want to pay money for.

The IntelliStation Power 285 workstation comes with a single Power5+ chip running at 1.9 GHz, which can have either one or two cores activated. Because performance is the key issue with RISC/Unix workstation buyers, the 36 MB of L3 cache per core that is built into the Power5+ dual-chip module is activated. The Power 285 workstation can support up to 32 GB of 533 MHz DDR2 main memory, and has four disk bays in its tower chassis that can support 36 GB, 73 GB, 146 GB, or 300 GB Ultra320 SCSI disk drives. The machine can be equipped with RAID data protection. IBM is offering three graphics cards with the machine: the Power GXT135P, GXT4500P, and GXT6500P. The base 2D GXT135P card costs $389; it is a PCI (not PCI-X) card with 16 MB of video memory and it supports 1600x1200 screen resolutions. The GXT4500P is a much more powerful 3D card that has 108 MB of texture memory and supports resolutions up to 2048x1536. The GXT6500P card adds a 128 MB frame buffer to the 3D card. To the best of my knowledge, these cards do not support Linux, just AIX. The Power 285 workstation has six PCI-X slots, which accommodate a mix of cards running at high and low speeds and in short and low form factors.

So far, IBM is only supporting its AIX 5L operating system on the Power 285, although Linux can run on the basic iron. The issue seems to have to do with IBM's desire to sell AIX on this box and to not have to create Linux drivers for this machine. But, I would be willing to bet that there is some way to hack Linux onto this machine if you want to do it bad enough.

A base AIX Express Edition of this workstation, which comes with a single 1.9 GHz core activated, 2 GB of main memory, and a no-charge processor entitlement costs $8,999. Adding a second processor core (but not AIX on the second processor) and boosting the main memory to 4 GB and the disk count to two 73 GB drives raises the price to $16,103.