Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Database
    • Database
    • Mobile
    • Networking

    HP Puts Quad-Core Itaniums into New NonStop Blade

    By
    Jeff Burt
    -
    March 22, 2011
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Hewlett-Packard is putting quad-core Itanium processors into a new blade server in the company’s high-end NonStop portfolio.

      HP’s new Integrity NonStop BladeSystem NB54000c is powered by a quad-core chip from Intel’s Itanium 9300 “Tukwila” lineup, which was released in February 2010 after several delays. The new system will offer twice the performance of the current dual-core NonStop blade, according to Bob Kossler, director of strategy and planning for the NonStop Business Division of HP’s Business Critical Systems unit.

      Along with the performance improvement, the new system offers a simple upgrade path, an important factor for customers that rely on their NonStop systems to keep their businesses running constantly, Kossler said.

      “It’s an in-cabinet upgrade,” he said in an interview with eWEEK. “There’s no application recompiling [needed]. … You put in the new processor, update the operating system and off you go.”

      Blades are becoming an increasingly important part of the NonStop business for HP, Kossler said. They represent more than 50 percent of revenues the business brings in, and businesses are looking to them to bring the scalability and reliability the NonStop systems are known for, and doing so in a smaller footprint.

      The scalability is a key part, he said. HP can scale a NonStop server cluster from two processors to 4,080 blades, according to Kossler.

      He said the NonStop business is a steady one, with pockets of growth in such areas as financial services, health care and public agencies. Telecommunications companies also are a strong area for NonStops, particularly given the rapid growth of mobile data traffic and such applications as location-based services, Kossler said.

      “Anywhere … a service license demands the business stays up 24/7 with no downtime, that seems to be the sweet spot for NonStop,” he said.

      The NonStop systems also play in HP’s Converged Infrastructure push, given their ease of deployment and management and virtualization capabilities that enable users to bring together their servers, storage and networking systems into a single pool of resources.

      Still, the market for NonStops and their ilk remains relatively stagnant, as compared with the continued growth of x86 systems. In announcing its fiscal first-quarter financial numbers in February, HP said revenues in its Business Critical Systems was about $555 million, or roughly the same as the same period the year before.

      Market research firm Gartner said in announcing its quarterly server market numbers that during the last three quarters of 2010, the Unix market-which includes HP’s high-end Itanium-based Integrity systems-was the one segment that showed signs of weakness, squeezed between the fast-growing x86 market and IBM’s strong System z mainframe business. For the quarter, the RISC segment saw revenues fall 18.7 percent, according to Gartner.

      “The challenge for Unix vendors in 2011 is to limit migrations and to try to encourage new investment in these platforms,” Gartner analyst Adrian O’Connell said in a statement.

      However, HP executives have said that the division of its industry-standard x86-based ProLiant servers and high-end Integrity systems gives it the best way to address all market segments. In addition, HP and its Integrity line are by far the top customers for Intel’s Itanium processors, which the chip maker is continuing to evolve.

      In February, Intel officials said their upcoming “Poulson” Itanium chip will feature a new microarchitecture that will be the foundation for the processor line for years to come. At the time, Intel executives declined to give a timeline for Poulson’s release, saying only that it was on schedule.

      Avatar
      Jeff Burt
      Jeffrey Burt has been with eWEEK since 2000, covering an array of areas that includes servers, networking, PCs, processors, converged infrastructure, unified communications and the Internet of things.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×