IBM Unveils Opteron ClusterIBM Unveils Opteron Cluster

About 10 months after Advanced Micro Devices formally launched the 64-bit Opteron processor, IBM this week unveiled its first commercial deployment of a cluster implementation based on the processor.

Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb will install a server cluster of 64 eServer 325 systems, in part because of the Opteron's ability to run both 32-bit and 64 bit Linux applications, says Dave Turek, VP of deep computing at IBM's Systems Group.

IBM previously had deployed systems based on Opteron with "early adopter" academic and scientific customers. But the implementation with Bristol-Myers Squibb could signal the start of a significant use of the processor architecture in commercial applications, Turek says.

"Opteron has a very nice appeal and is very complementary to our Power and Intel offerings," he says. "This gives our customers a substantial latitude of choice in their approach to meet different price, price/performance, and raw performance needs."

The server cluster being delivered to Bristol-Meyers Squibb will be used to process extremely large algorithms required to identify basic compounds that serve as the building blocks for new drugs, Turek says.

Turek says he doesn't believe that other tier one server suppliers Dell and Hewlett-Packard will begin offering Opteron-based systems, as those companies are more aligned with Intel processors, but does expect to see an emergence of some second-tier vendors that will produce systems based on Opteron.

Paul Miller, VP of marketing for Hewlett-Packard's industry standard servers, says his company will continue to evaluate Opteron.

"It really goes to our view of the marketplace," Miller says. "Processors are becoming less relevant, and we're focused on developing solutions on a higher level and don't have current plans to do anything with Opteron. We never say never, but I doubt that much of the (Bristol-Meyers Squibb) bid was won based on the processor architecture."