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July 17, 2007

Elaine Lennox Hints at i5/OS on Other Hardware

Details are scarce right now, but IBM's System i Vice President of Marketing Elaine Lennox seems to have told attendees at the OCEAN Annual Technical Conference yesterday that IBM is planning to port i5/OS to run on other hardware.

To paraphrase, she said something that noted that IBM has been "homogenizing hardware" for some time now, and that continuing with that trend, i5/OS would likely run on BladeCenters at some point. BUT I don't have a direct quote, and even then, according to multiple sources, the "BladeCenters" may have been "blade servers", and while the latter doesn't make sense in context to IBM's technology, it's an illustration of how well people record details in off-the-cuff environments.

So, it is clear, though, that Lennox was very guarded with her terminology and didn't "pre-announce" anything. She certainly didn't offer any details, with the possible exception of noting that IBM would "announce" something in the near future.

IBM's PR team, for its part, wouldn't confirm or deny the rumors, scuttlebutt, and speculation, but there will be some sort of announcement soon. Until then, this is all we know.

* One Note: Sometimes when a big company wants to share really big news, it lets some bits and pieces dribble out, examines how people react, and then figures out the best way to spin the story. Happens in politics, too, it turns out. Either way, this is all I know right now.

Posted by cmaxcer at July 17, 2007 4:20 PM

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Comments

Didn't Mark Shearer also say "watch this space" when asked about i5/OS on blades? Sounds like an announcement is imminent!

Posted by: at July 18, 2007 10:25 AM

Elaine Lennox said that you can expect to see IBM continue to invest in i5/OS.

i5/OS is what makes a System i a System i. and NOT the words "System i5" on the outside of the box.

She said that the System i is not unique hardware already, since a lot of the System p technology is used in the System i5 and vice-versa. And that we should expect more of that.

She also talked quite a bit about "wouldn't it be great if" we could run i5/OS on a blade in a BladeCenter? (It sounded like they're expecting to do that.)

She didn't directly say that it would ever run on Intel hardware, though Bob Tipton (who isn't with IBM, and doesn't know what they're planning, and said so) made a lot of references to the potential for i5/OS to run on the xSeries (and presumably other PC hardware) and talked about how Mac went through a similar transformation of converting from PowerPC to Intel, and that it was nothing but good news for the platform.

Lennox also said something about an IBM announcement next week.

* Note from Chris: Thanks for the clarification, Scott. Bob Tipton, by the way, also spoke at the OCEAN conference, following Lennox.

Posted by: Scott Klement at July 18, 2007 11:16 AM

Then, you have to wonder, if the blade idea comes to pass, would the System i be more acceptable to consultants who thrive in the "one application per server" market? Would those Gurus of technology then recommend System i? Would we develop a grid-like capability between networked iBlades that would eclipse the current HA solutions? The possibilities seem, well, endless!

Posted by: at July 18, 2007 12:28 PM

I think, it means only POWER (with implemented AS instruction set + single level storage addressing) based blades, not Intel or PPC970 based hardware.
And this "announcement" isn't really new.

On the other side, i5/OS or parts/runtimes/emulations of them on other hardware then POWER exist since years (baby/400, unibol etc.).

Posted by: stanley at July 18, 2007 2:37 PM

... and it rumors, they plan on putting the 5+ Ghz POWER6 on their new JS40 blade in 2007.

Posted by: stanley at July 18, 2007 3:18 PM

Any chance of 64-bit Windows on POWER6? Would be a help for enterprises wanting to consolidate.

Posted by: at July 19, 2007 11:15 AM

PowerPC is dead. Long live Intel!

Posted by: ugeerts at July 19, 2007 12:46 PM

OK, NOW the pSeries already can run i5/OS in a Partition....

Posted by: Juan Manuel at July 19, 2007 7:17 PM

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