A timeline of continued xSeries innovation, investment and differentiation:

In 2001 IBM introduced their first generation in the Enterprise X-Architecture (EXA) systems. The x440 was the first scalable 16 Socket x 86 platform available in a form factor smaller than Unisys’ entire rack. Its small form factor was not its only draw, there was the fault-tolerant memory and the “pay-as-you-grow” option to expand past the initial investment (and capabilities) of a single system.

In 2003 the x445 was announced as IBM’s successor to their first generation EXA system. The x445 allowed for increased performance and unparalleled expansion. Like the previous generation the systems was able to scale past a single node, with the new x445 being able to scale to up to 32 Intel Xeon processors in a single logical system.

2005 saw the introduction of IBM’s x460 (which would later be rebranded as the x3950) which supported new features such as Hot-Swappable Memory. In keeping with their prior systems the x460 was also capable of expansion

IBM announced the x3850 M2 and x3950 M2 servers in 2008. The fourth generation IBM X-Architecture chipset design touted performance enhancements that included a 60% front-side bus speed improvement, and up to 60% faster memory speed than the previous generation. The introduction of efficient snoop filtering helped to reduce latency and improve the performance of the systems which offered leadership performance for databases, enterprise applications and virtualized server workloads.

On March 2nd 2010 IBM once again demonstrated they that they will continue to invest and  differentiate themselves from their competitors. The eX5 systems, the fifth generation of IBM’s Enterprise X-Architecture, include the new x3690 X5 (high-end scalable 2 socket system), the x3850 X5 (high-end Scalable 4 socket system), and the HX5 (high-end scalable 2 socket blade).

Do More With Less:

The introduction of the new MAX5 external memory chassis for the new eX5 systems allows for unprecedented memory expansion and density per socket on the x86 platform. IBM’s new systems allow for a greater consolidation of workloads for memory bound platforms and applications. Companies can now realize even greater consolidation ratios for workloads (including Databases and Virtual Machines) and this increased consolidation translates directly to reduced costs on software licensing and support that is based on the number of Sockets or Cores being used. In the case of Oracle environments IBM has claimed the ability to reduce the cost of running the environment by up to 66%. IBM also claims that the x3960 X5 can support up to 100% more Virtual Machines than a 2 Socket MP system without eX5.

You can see the full IBM announcement here:  http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/ex5/?sa_campaign=message/leaf3/stg/announcement/ex5

 Optimizing your Infrastructure with IBM eX5 and VMware vSphere:  http://www.vmworld.com/docs/DOC-4523

 IBM eX5 and VMware Virtualization Solutions:  http://www.vmworld.com/docs/DOC-4524