IBM’s 4 Processor Intel Nehalem EX Blade Server

2-2-10 CORRECTION Made Below

Okay, I’ve seen the details on IBM’s next generation 4 processor blade server that is based on the Intel Nehalem EX cpu and I can tell you that IBM’s about to change the way people look at workloads for blade servers.  Out of respect for IBM (and at the risk of getting in trouble) I’m not going to disclose any confidential details, but I can tell you a few things:

1) my previous post about what the server will look like is not far off.  In fact it was VERY close.  However IBM up’d the ante and made a few additions that I didn’t expect that will make it appealing for customers who need the ability to run large workloads.

2) the scheduled announce date for this new 4 processor IBM blade server based on the Nehalem EX (whose name I guessed correctly) will be before April 1, 2010 but after March 15, 2010.  Ship date is currently scheduled sometime after May but before July.

As a final teaser, there’s another IBM blade server annoucement scheduled for tomorrow.  Once it’s officially announced on Feb 3rd  Feb 9th I’ll let you know and give you some details.

7 thoughts on “IBM’s 4 Processor Intel Nehalem EX Blade Server

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  4. admin Post author

    Thanks for reading – I’m not sure what RAS features will be incorporated into new blades, however your comments about heat and hot swap drives are not accurate. The IBM HS22 blade has a very efficient design with air channels going through the blade server that allow for effficient cooling. Oh yeah, and it has hot-swap drives. You should check it out (http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/hardware/servers/hs22/index.html) there’s more coming to this family in less than a week…

  5. Phil

    Yeah, everyone and their grandmother will be releasing Nehalem-EX blades in 2 x socket, 4 x socket and even 8 x socket configurations and so far, from what you've described, IBM doesn't appear to be much different than most others. What is IBM going to do about RAS? Their current blade designs poses lots of reliability challenges considering they place the heat generating CPUs towards front of the blade where it will heat rest of components in the blade and with no redundancy nor hotswappable drives, their current blade design needs a major overhaul.

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