The IBM System x computers form a sub-brand of International Business Machines (IBM's) System brand servers (the other System sub-brands having the names IBM System i, IBM System p, IBM System z and IBM System Storage). In addition IBM System x is the main component of the IBM System Cluster 1350 solution.
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Starting out as IBM PC Server, rebranded Netfinity, then eServer xSeries and now System x, these servers are distinguished by being based on off-the-shelf x86 CPUs; IBM positions them as their "low end" or "entry" offering.
Previously IBM servers based on AMD Opteron CPUs did not share the xSeries brand; instead they fell directly under the eServer umbrella. However, current AMD Opteron-based servers fall under the System x brand.
Not to be confused with a different IBM product with a similar name, NetFinity (notice the capital F).
The numbering scheme started off similar to that of the IBM PC Servers, but additional ranges were added, like the entry-level 1000 later on. Models ending with an R, are rack-mount.
Some Netfinity servers used IBM's C2T cabling scheme for Keyboard/Video/Mouse.
Many xSeries servers used IBM's C2T cabling scheme for Keyboard/Video/Mouse.
For marketing reasons the AMD processor based e325, e326 and e326m and the BladeCenter which supports non-Intel processor products were not branded xSeries, but were instead placed directly under the eServer brand. The xSeries brand was limited to only Intel-based server products.
From a numbering perspective the AMD servers did fit into the xSeries range, under the similar x335 and x336 Intel processor products. These numbers were not re-used in the xSeries range to prevent confusion.
IBM eX5 systems innovations introduced on March 2, 2010 include:
In large, scalable servers, the importance of the memory, I/O, and disk subsystems are paramount. To efficiently utilize multiple execution engines, whether they are cores, threads, or physical processors, two things need to be achieved.
First, the application must have the ability to distribute workload across the execution engines, this applies to the hypervisor, the operating system, and the application. Second, the memory and I/O subsystems must have the physical ability to feed the execution engines with enough data to keep them fully utilized. These two requirements are easier said than done; indeed the average processor utilization in an x86 computing platform is 5 - 10%.
Software vendors have previously been able to fall back on the increasing clock speed of the processors for performance gains, however the recent shift to multi-core processing requires intelligence coded into the applications to support parallel processing. The applications can eventually be recoded, but this takes time and a finite limit always exists to the performance benefits that can be achieved by adding processor cores. Using software to virtualize your servers offers a way to use existing applications, not written for parallel processing, and still scale up in performance because the hypervisor can distribute multiple virtual machines across all of the processor cores in the system.
Virtualization brings many other benefits such as increased flexibility for server fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and power savings that reduce costs and support environmental responsibility. It is however a software solution and can therefore do little to alleviate the problem of physically feeding data into the processing units fast enough to maximize utilization. The performance of the processor, memory and I/O subsystems inside an x86 server must complement each other to allow virtualization software to get the most use out of the machine. The System x data center is built to face current industry challenges.
2nd digit increments to show capability
3rd digit is a 0 for tower models, and 5 for rack-mount
4th digit is a 0 for Intel processors, and 5 for AMD Opteron.
Models with a T at the end are meant for Telco purposes.