ARMONK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Jun 27, 2008 -- IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) today announced that Microsoft is among the first clients to implement IBM's iDataPlex system -- a new category of server developed by IBM for Internet-scale computing. IBM also introduced today a new high performance computing (HPC) option for iDataPlex, to bring supercomputing power to Cloud environments.

iDataPlex helps relieve massive, sprawled out data centers that are pushing the limits of power and space available to them. Designed to dramatically increase compute density while significantly decreasing energy consumption and associated data center costs, iDataPlex uses 40 percent less power and increases by five times the amount of computing done in the same space. iDataPlex also uses all industry-standard components as well as open source software such as Linux to lower costs.

Since launching the brand new category of server just over 30 days ago, IBM has already begun to deliver the iDataPlex system to clients globally. Among the first clients to adopt iDataPlex is Microsoft. The High Performance Computing product unit within Microsoft's Windows Server Group is leveraging IBM iDataPlex systems for internal benchmarking of their cluster computing operating system, Windows HPC Server 2008.

"Power efficiency and high density are among the top issues of concern for customers who rely on large scale HPC resources to support their research and innovation," said Kyril Faenov, general manager, Microsoft High Performance Computing. "Microsoft is excited to work with IBM on ensuring that Windows HPC Server 2008, with its advanced power management capabilities, is a perfect complement to the iDataPlex system for a broad range of HPC applications."

IBM's New HPC Server Turns iDataPlex Into World-Class Supercomputer

IBM has also expanded its new iDataPlex line of servers with high performance options that will allow the system to pack 145 teraflops (145 trillion operations per second) of compute power in a 315-square-foot area.*

The new iDataPlex DX360 HPC server uses the latest 3GHz, quad-core Xeon processors from Intel and new software from Silicon Valley start-up ScaleMP to boost bandwidth and memory performance to levels demanded by HPC applications.

IBM also expanded interconnect options for iDataPlex with InfiniBand switches from Voltaire and QLogic, InfiniBand adapters from Mellanox, Fiber Channel adapters from Emulex, and 10G Ethernet switches from Blade Network Technologies, SMC, Cisco and Force 10.

iDataPlex is an important element in helping clients develop a new enterprise data center, which offers dramatic improvements in IT efficiency and provides for rapid deployment of new IT services to support future business growth. IBM is helping clients move to new enterprise data centers by focusing on best practices around virtualization, green IT, service management and cloud computing.

For more information about IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com.

*315-square-foot area is equivalent to size of Portable Modular Data Centers from IBM

     Contacts:
     Vineeta Durani
     IBM Corporation
     917-472-3694
     vineeta.durani@us.ibm.com
      
     Tina Couch
     Microsoft
     425-703-7185
     tcouch@microsoft.com