IBM Offers HPC BladeCenter Server For The Enterprise

Offering a new supercomputing technology for the enterprise, IBM Wednesday expanded its High Performance Computing (HPC) product line with the release of the IBM BladeCenter QS22, which is aimed at providing financial services, digital content creation and medical imaging applications. The QS22 is based on the new IBM PowerXCell 8i multi-core processor that is compliant with Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) architecture that was jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba and was originally intended for cutting-edge gaming applications, and used in products like the Sony Playstation 3.

The chip is five times faster than the original Cell/B.E. chip, has up to 32GB of memory or 16 times than the original, and can handle workloads that previously required dozens of servers, IBM said. Developers can use the QS22's open environment, which uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the primary operating system and the open development platform Eclipse.

IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y., said that by utilizing the PowerXCell 8i processor, the QS22 also allows IT managers to evaluate how much of an application that needs the supercomputing power of the Cell/B.E. architecture and how much could remain on a traditional system. The chip also offers increased performance per-watt and improved power server management compared to previous generations.

"The QS22 is a technological leap over the physical limitations of traditional processors that often dampen the ability of organizations to reach their goals," said Jim Comfort, vice president, IBM Systems and Technology Group, in a statement.

Additionally, IBM has opened up thousands of pages of technical documentation on the Cell/B.E. architecture to the public, including a free, full-system simulator. The company has also released an upgrade to its Software Development Kit (SDK) for Multicore Acceleration v3, which provides enhancements and templates so that clients can use the new features of QS22.

The SDK for Multicore Acceleration v3 is available now, and the QS22 is slated for release in early June.