News

HP Fleshes Out Server Line

• By Scott Bekker
• 11/06/2003

The key new servers in the Itanium line are the HP Integrity rx7620 and the HP Integrity rx8620. The rx7620 is an eight-processor-capable server running Itanium 2 chips. The rx8620 is a 16-processor-capable server for Itanium 2s.

While HP previously offered four-way Itanium systems and the HP Integrity Superdome, which scales up to 64 processors, it didn't have a product addressing midrange needs. The models that are now available derive from older eight- and 16-way systems that supported HP's RISC processors.

HP takes a multi-platform approach with its Integrity line, selling the systems with its own HP-UX flavor of Unix, with 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2003 and with Linux. The company also plans to support OpenVMS on Integrity servers later this year.

In an effort to combat the perception that relatively few applications are ready for Itanium, which requires a different instruction set than x86 processors, HP claims that nearly 1,000 applications are available for Itanium systems across the three operating systems it currently offers on the platform.

The Integrity rx7620 starts at $23,735. The Integrity rx8620 starts at $62,730. A rack-dense, four-way Itanium 2 system, the Integrity rx4640, that was also announced this week starts at $15,869.

In addition to the 64-bit systems, HP rolled out a series of inexpensive HP ProLiant servers for small- and medium-sized businesses and some Linux cluster packages for high-performance technical computing.