IBM lets fly single-socket Power7 Penguin server

By Tim Prickett Morgan | The Register

The Register

Big Blue has launched a third Power-powered Penguin box and pitched it against x86 server rivals.

The machine, called the PowerLinux 7R1, is a single-socket machine that complements the two-socket PowerLinux 7R2 rack and tower server, and the Flex System p24L half-width node for PureSystem modular servers.

IBM PowerLinux 7R1 server from Acardia

Back in April IBM revived its Linux-only variant of Power Systems servers, which are significantly cheaper than the vanilla boxes that run IBM’s own AIX or IBM i (formerly OS/400) operating systems in addition to Linux.

The PowerLinux machines also sport a dramatically reduced PowerVM hypervisor, and the combination of cheap iron and a cheap hypervisor makes them competitive against virtualised x86 iron using VMware’s ESXi hypervisor and vSphere management stack.

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