Big Blue on a Big High

The single point IBM agenda for the highly lucrative Unix server space can be
spelt as, ‘Time to claw back the market share.’ IBM’s weapon is the new
p-series 690 system, code-named ‘Regatta’. While the change from p680 to
p690 may seem modest, the ‘Regatta’ showcases a new generation of RISC chips
in the shape of POWER4 and other ‘first time’ technologies in the Unix
server. It’s really the Big Blue’s big bang. Comments DC Chien, VP server
and storage, IBM Asia Pacific, "Regatta is going to be the flagship product
in the Unix server space." But why the sudden need for sprucing up the Unix act?

Market share considerations for one. Even with a huge pSeries Unix server
lineup, IBM has not been able to break Sun’s stranglehold in the Unix server
market estimated to be around $29 billion by IDC. As per data available on Sun’s
website, as of Q2 of 2001, Sun was the number one player with a 42% market share
and way ahead of the number two HP, with IBM in the third spot. Moreover, Sun’s
stranglehold in the Unix market is clear. It has been in the leading position
for the 17th consecutive quarter in unit shipments.

Apart from being the biggest chunk in the total server market pegged at $60
billion, this segment also drives demand for storage, services, and software.
Toppling Sun seems to be clearly the IBM agenda for, even at the launch of the
Regatta, the main issue revolved around microprocessor breakthroughs and
mainframe technologies at half the price of Sun products in the same line. IBM
is hoping that the p690 servers will give Sun heavy competition and hopes to
increase its market share in the lucrative Unix market.

Breakthrough technologies

So what is IBM offering in the Regatta? The endeavor is to bring mainframe
stability into Unix land. To begin with, the Regatta is the first processor to
feature two cores on a die, and the first to eschew the conventional bus, switch
or crossbar options in favor of a variable frequency ‘distributed switch’.
The two cores share 1.5MB of L2 cache and an index into the L3 off-chip cache.
There are four such chips (and therefore eight CPUs) in a package. This package
is the same four-pin MCM used in the S/390, a.k.a. the zSeries. IBM says a
single MCM is therefore equivalent to six of Sun’s four-way boards. The
Regatta also borrows from IBM’s Project eLiza, a set of self-management
technologies designed to keep systems running in the face of errors by taking
affected components offline. This is done with the help of its own nervous
system with a network of over 5600 sensors to continuously monitor performance
and overall system health. According to Vijay Lund, VP, eServer Technology
Development, IBM, "The nervous system will take the availability of servers
to new levels and contain failures as much as possible to keep the system
running." Regatta will become the first IBM Unix server with a partitioning
feature, which gives it the ability to divide a single large server into smaller
systems running different tasks. While IBM had built the same into its
mainframes years ago, it has only recently brought the technology into the high
end Unix systems. However, other vendors like Sun, who have pursued the idea of
creating a mainframe-like server, have been pursued for some time and have made
sizable gains in market share. Sun has had the same partition feature on its
top-end Unix servers since the last four years. With these new mainframe
technologies, analysts appear optimistic that the company has finally made a
strong move to bolster its lagging Unix line.

With the Regatta, IBM is also eyeing the budget conscious CIO looking for
database applications. Database software major Oracle prices its products
according to the number of CPUs it runs on and other server software sellers
SAP, Baan and Siebel Systems are following suit. IBM has shied away from the
industry practice of packing processors into the server. IBM has chosen a design
using a few chips with the best possible connections to maintain speed. Another
bet IBM is making is banking on Linux. Regatta along with Linux is expected to
be available by the second half of 2002 giving the Regatta the ability to run
two different systems simultaneously within its separate partitions.

Linux edge

IBM has been among the first companies to publicly support the open source
Linux. IBM had so far been viewed as a single vendor with multiple proprietary
operating systems (OS) like AIX for the pSeries and AS400I for the iSeries.
Remember the recent Sun campaign on similar lines touting its advantages of
having a single scalable platform? With Linux, IBM can now have a single
platform across all its systems. Also in terms of functions, Linux is closing
the gap with the strongest Unix systems. According to a survey by D H Brown
Associates on Linux function review, users found SuSE Linux and Red Hat Linux as
good as the strongest Unix systems with better ratings. Another problem with
having multiple OS’ has been getting software companies to make their software
work on all the platforms compared to a single Sun platform. Part of the reason
for Sun’s growth has been its huge software base and IBM has been fighting
hard to convince software companies to make their software work for its platform
as well. Now IBM can get a huge software base thanks to Linux. Like Windows,
Linux can work on any machine and hence presents a big opportunity for ISVs to
develop applications for the Linux platform. Today IBM boasts of over 2500 Linux
applications and has had huge success thanks to Linux. Comments Steve Solazzo,
VP Linux, IBM, "Companies are buying mainframes thanks to Linux."
Also, with Linux as part of its product portfolio, IBM is confident of making a
big impact in countries like India and China. These countries already have a
great strength in open source software and it is easier to convince CIOs to move
to Linux.

With Regatta, it appears that IBM can get a good foothold in the Unix market
space. Also with Linux as partner, it can override one of its key weaknesses of
having multiple proprietary platforms and grab the market share.

Yograj Varma in China