IBM introduced the world's most powerful eight-way UNIX server that marks the debut of IBM's next-generation POWER4 technology. Priced 65 percent less than a comparably-configured Sun 3800, the IBM eServer p650 brings the performance and autonomic computing capabilities of the IBM eServer p690 to the midrange.

The eServer p650 is the first server to include IBM's newest 64-bit microprocessor, POWER4+ - which takes advantage of the advanced 0.13 micron fabrication process and contains more than 180 million transistors. The POWER4+ chip is available in the eServer p650 with 1.2 and 1.45GHz. According to IBM, POWER4+ chips consume a third less power per processor than the latest version of the Sun UltraSPARC III chip at identical frequencies.

The eServer p650 is a powerful and relatively affordable midrange system for running applications such as enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management and business intelligence at a wide range of organisations - from small and medium size businesses to divisions of large enterprises, branch offices and e-businesses. In addition, the p650 offers great flexibility, with up to eight dynamic partitions. The p650 is designed to run the AIX 5L operating system, including Version 5.2, and, when available, Linux simultaneously in separate partitions.

The p650 already has beaten previous records for eight-way Web serving and Java application performance and beats a comparable Sun server on SAP performance in an Enterprise Resource Planning environment by nearly 50%.

According to IBM, the 2-way IBM eServer p650 is priced at $34 095, while the identical solution from Sun, the Fire 3800 cost $98 445 in identical configuration.