HP upgrades Integrity server portfolio with Itanium 9500 chips

Hewlett-Packard (HP) along with Intel brings new dynamics to converged lnfrastructure portfolio and the server landscape, with the indroduction of HP Integrity Portfolio powered by eighth generation Intel Itanium processor 9500 series (codenamed as Paulson). The new HP Integrity platform supports HP-UX software, HP NonStop and OpenVMS operating systems.

"Over time, these will cascade mission-critical x86 platforms delivering single, unified infrastructure for Unix, Microsoft Windows and Linux platform," said Santanu Ghose, Director, Business Critical Systems, HP India.

"The biggest advantage of Itanium 9500 processor over older generations is that the core frequency is now upto 2.53GHz, with an 8% lowered TDP and 80% less idle power draw. The microarchitecture adds as much as 2.4 times the performance as compared with the older Itaniums, as well as up to 40 percent faster frequency, and 33 percent greater bandwidth," pointed out Intel South Asia's Country Business Manager, MNC Accounts, Srinivasan Ramaprasad, said during the launch.

"Based on HP enhancements and the Intel Itanium processor 9500 series, transactions are processed up to three times faster than previous generations, while using 21% less energy. As a result, clients can realize a 33% savings in total cost of ownership (TCO)," reiterated Shantanu.

The new products include, Integrity Superdome 2, three new HP Integrity server blades - BL860ci4, BL870ci4, and BL890ci4, and a new entry-class HP Integrity server, rx2800i4. The other announcements include HP-UX software upgradation and new advisory workshops for customers.

Itanium 9500 contains 3.1 billion transistors; up from 2.1 billion that of its predecessor 9300, supports up to twice as many cores (8 instead of 4) than 9300. The new frequencies range up to 2.53 GHz. It provides up to 2.4 times performance scaling and 33 per cent faster IO speed over the previous generation.

Key features of Enhanced HP Integrity Portfolio:

The new HP Integrity systems including Superdome 2 offers a better scalability and performance. It also enables proactive detection, analysis and repair of errors.

HP's expanded portfolio which also includes server blades utilize reduced power-up to 21% less energy, dual in-line memory modules (DIMMS).

* 'HP-UX 11iv3,' the new enhancement enable clients to improve security; simplify management with HP Capacity Advisor's new analysis tool that identifies idle and under- or over-utilized servers to increase server efficiency; and doubles the size of HP-UX workloads supported within the same data center footprint with up to 256 cores per server.

Srinivasan Ramaprasad, business manager, MNC accounts, Intel South Asia, said: "We are focused on mission-critical environments. Kittson is the next version of Paulson. I do not have any particular date for its launch. It will take roughly two-three years as did Paulson. After Kittson, we will be announcing the next version as and when it happens because we do not look beyond two years."