Vendor Spotlight:

NEC, IBM AND INTEL TO DELIVER NEW 64-BIT COMPUTING SOLUTION

NEC Solutions (America), Inc., a provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America, announced it is partnering with IBM and Intel Corporation to deliver a new 64-bit computing solution.

IBM, Intel and NEC Solutions America have enabled IBM DB2 Universal Database software on the NEC Express5800/1000 server with Intel Itanium 2-based large scale SMP (Symmetric Multi Processor) enterprise computing platform. IBM has certified DB2 database software for NEC's Express5800/1000 Itanium 2 server and is now using it as one of the 64-bit r eference platforms for DB2 database software development and optimization using Intel's EPIC architecture.

"IBM is committed to work with business partners to take advantage of the rich code base in DB2 Universal Database and provide customers with a powerful 64- bit computing solution," said Tony Rummans, vice president of business development, IBM DB2 Information Management Solutions. "The combination of NEC’s Express5800/1000 Intel Itanium 2-based series 32-way enterprise server and DB2 Universal Database software provides customers with a high performance data center that is scalable and easy to manage."

Itanium Server Platform

NEC’s Itanium 2 processor-based servers are designed to meet the needs of the most demanding enterprise and technical computing applications. In order to maximize the performance of the Itanium 2 Processor, NEC has developed a high- performance chipset and crossbar switch cultivated through the development of NEC’s supercomputer and mainframe technology. With these innovations, the Express5800/1000 server not only demonstrates high performance, but also realizes high scalability and high reliability.

"NEC’s Express 5800/1000 server shows that the Itanium Processor Family (IPF) delivers cost effective, but enterprise class performance, scalability and reliability," said Richard Dracott, general manager, Enterprise Marketing and Planning for Intel’s Enterprise Platforms Group. "We are very excited to be working with NEC and IBM to demonstrate the benefits of the EPIC architecture."

NEC’s Itanium 2 server provides massive power and scalability on the latest operating systems platforms to ensure the best price/performance and interoperability available. The series offers models that can be configured with 8 to 32 CPUs which access up to 512 gigabytes of shared main memory. Each of these CPUs can be partitioned at the hardware level, enabling each subsystem to operate as an independent system. These servers employ PCI-X for I/O to connect peripheral and network devices and can be configured with up to 112 slots.

"This work is a testimony to the vision and technological innovation that NEC has committed to enhance the acceptance of the Intel Itanium 2 architecture in the datacenter environment," said Larry Sheffield, senior vice president of the Solutions Platform Group for NEC Solutions America. "We are proud that IBM’s Data Management Group has selected NEC’s enterprise Intel Itanium 2- based systems as a new platform to offer customers more choices for 64-bit computing, and we look forward to working with IBM, Intel and our mutual customers to deliver this new solution."