System x is a line of

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

servers produced by IBM – and later by

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...

– as a sub-brand of IBM's ''System'' brand, alongside

IBM Power Systems Power Systems is a family of server computers from IBM that are based on its Power processors. It was created in 2008 as a merger of the System p and System i product lines. History IBM had two distinct POWER- and PowerPC-based hardware li ...

IBM System z IBM Z is a family name used by IBM for all of its z/Architecture mainframe computers. In July 2017, with another generation of products, the official family was changed to IBM Z from IBM z Systems; the IBM Z family now includes the newest mode ...

and IBM System Storage. In addition, IBM System x was the main component of the

IBM System Cluster 1350 The IBM Intelligent Cluster was a cluster solution for x86-based high-performance computing composed primarily of IBM ( System x, BladeCenter and System Storage) components, integrated with network switches from various vendors and optional high- ...

solution. In January 2014, IBM announced the sale of its x86 server business to Lenovo for $2.3 billion, in a sale completed October 1, 2014.

History

Starting out with the ''PS/2 Server'', then the ''IBM PC Server'', rebranded ''Netfinity'', then ''eServer xSeries'' and finally System x, these servers are distinguished by being based on

off-the-shelf Off-the-shelf may refer to: * Commercial off-the-shelf, a phrase in computing and industrial supply terminology * Government off-the-shelf * Ready-to-wear * Shelf corporation, a type of company * Off the Shelf Festival, a festival of writing and r ...

CPUs; IBM positioned them as their "low end" or "entry" offering compared to their POWER and Mainframe products. Previously IBM servers based on

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

Opteron Opteron is AMD's x86 former server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture (known generically as x86-64 or AMD64). It was released on April 22, 2003, with the ''SledgeHa ...

CPUs did not share the ''xSeries'' brand; instead they fell directly under the ''e''Server umbrella. However, later AMD Opteron-based servers did fall under the System x brand.

Predecessors

IBM PS/2 Server

* IBM

PS/2 The Personal System/2 or PS/2 is IBM's second generation of personal computers. Released in 1987, it officially replaced the IBM PC, XT, AT, and PC Convertible in IBM's lineup. Many of the PS/2's innovations, such as the 16550 UART (serial po ...

Server 85 (Type 9585), 1992 * IBM PS/2 Server 95 (Types 8595, 9595, 9595A), 1990–1992 * IBM PS/2 Server 195, 1993 * IBM PS/2 Server 295, 1992

IBM PC Server

PC Server range

* IBM PC Server 300, 1994 * IBM PC Server 310 (PCI/ISA), 1996http://www.ibmfiles.com/ibmfiles/pcserver/pc_servers_listing.pdf * IBM PC Server 315 (PCI/ISA), 1996 * IBM PC Server 320 (PCI/EISA), 1996 * IBM PC Server 325 (PCI/EISA), 1996 * IBM PC Server 330 (PCI/EISA), 1997 * IBM PC Server 500 (MCA), 1994 * IBM PC Server 520 (PCI/EISA or PCI/MCA), 1995-1996 * IBM PC Server 704 (PCI/EISA), 1996 * IBM PC Server 720 (PCI/MCA), 1995-1996

Numbering scheme

* 300 range for high-volume, entry level servers * 500 range for midrange * 700 range for high-end.

IBM Netfinity

1998–2001 server line; Not to be confused with a software IBM product with a similar name,

NetFinity System x is a line of x86 Server (computing), servers produced by IBM – and later by Lenovo – as a sub-brand of IBM's ''System'' brand, alongside IBM Power Systems, IBM System z and IBM System Storage. In addition, IBM System x was the main c ...

(notice the capital F).

Netfinity range

* IBM Netfinity 1000 * IBM Netfinity 3000, 3500 * IBM Netfinity 4000R, 4500R * IBM Netfinity 5000, 5100, 5500, 5500-M10, 5500-M20, 5600 * IBM Netfinity 6000R * IBM Netfinity 7000, 7000-M10, 7100, 7600 * IBM Netfinity 8500R

Numbering scheme

The numbering scheme started off similar to that of the IBM PC Servers, but additional ranges were added, like the entry-level 1000 model later on. Models ending with an R, are rack-mount.

KVM cabling scheme

Some Netfinity servers used IBM's C2T cabling scheme for Keyboard/Video/Mouse.

IBM eServer

IBM eServer range

IBM eServer IBM eServer was a family of computer servers from IBM. Announced in 2000, it combined the various IBM server brands (AS/400, Netfinity, RS/6000, S/390) under one brand. The various sub-brands were at the same time rebranded from: *IBM RS/6000 to ...

was a marketing effort to put all of the diverse IBM server platforms under one header. The AS/400 became the

IBM eServer iSeries The IBM AS/400 (Application System/400) is a family of midrange computers from IBM announced in June 1988 and released in August 1988. It was the successor to the System/36 and System/38 platforms, and ran the OS/400 operating system. Lower-cost ...

, the RS/6000 became the

IBM eServer pSeries The IBM System p is a high-end line of RISC (Power)/UNIX-based servers. It was the successor of the RS/6000 line, and predecessor of the IBM Power Systems server series. History The previous RS/6000 line was originally a line of workstations an ...

, the S/390 mainframe became the

IBM eServer zSeries IBM Z is a family name used by IBM for all of its z/Architecture mainframe computers. In July 2017, with another generation of products, the official family was changed to IBM Z from IBM z Systems; the IBM Z family now includes the newest mod ...

and the Intel processor based IBM Netfinity servers became the IBM eServer xSeries. A few exceptions were however made * IBM eServer 325, 326, 326m * IBM eServer BladeCenter, BladeCenter T, BladeCenter H, BladeCenter HT

=Numbering scheme

= 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 eServer xSeries

While most servers used Intel x86 (IA32) processors, the x380, x382, x450 and x455 used the

Intel Itanium Itanium ( ) is a discontinued family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture (formerly called IA-64). Launched in June 2001, Intel marketed the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computin ...

(IA64) processor.

=xSeries range

= * IBM eServer xSeries 100, 130, 135, 150 * IBM eServer xSeries 200, 205, 206, 206m, 220, 225, 226, 230, 232, 235, 236, 240, 250, 255, 260 * IBM eServer xSeries 300, 305, 306, 306m, 330, 335, 336, 340, 342, 345, 346, 350, 360, 365, 366, 370, 380, 382 * IBM eServer xSeries 440, 445, 450, 455, 460

=Numbering scheme

= * 100 series are entry-level tower servers * 200 series are tower servers * 300 series are rack-mount servers * 400 series are rack-mount scalable servers

=KVM cabling scheme

= Many xSeries servers used IBM's C2T cabling scheme for Keyboard/Video/Mouse.

System x

IBM System x range

* IBM System x3105, x3100, x3100 M3, x3100 M4, x3100 M5 * IBM System x3200, x3200 M2, x3200 M3, x3250, x3250 M2, x3250 M3, x3250 M4, x3250 M5, x3250 M6 * IBM System x3300 M3, x3300 M4 * IBM System x3350 * IBM System x3400, x3400 M2, x3400 M3, x3450, x3455 * IBM System x3500, x3500 M2, x3500 M3, x3500 M4 * IBM System x3530 M3, x3530 M4 * IBM System x3550, x3550 M2, x3550 M3, x3550 M4, x3550 M5 * IBM System x3620 M3 * IBM System x3630 M3, x3630 M4 * IBM System x3650, x3650T, x3655, x3650 M2, x3650 M3, x3650 M4, x3650 M4 HD, x3650 M4 BD, 3650 M5 * IBM System x3690 X5 * IBM System x3750 M4 * IBM System x3755, x3755 M3 * IBM System x3800, x3850, x3850 M2, x3850 X5, x3850 X6 * IBM System x3950, x3950 M2, x3950 X5, x3950 X6

Lenovo System x range

These systems are effectively the same as the previous IBM branded models, but with a Lenovo badge. * Lenovo System x3100 M5 * Lenovo System x3250 M5, x3250 M6 * Lenovo System x3500 M5 * Lenovo System x3550 M4, x3550 M5 * Lenovo System x3650 M4, x3650 M5 * Lenovo System x3850 X6 * Lenovo System x3950 X6 * Lenovo NextScale * Lenovo FlexSystem Lenovo also had its own

ThinkServer The ThinkServer product line began with the TS100 from Lenovo. The server was developed under agreement with IBM, by which Lenovo would produce single-socket and dual-socket servers based on IBM's xSeries technology. An additional feature of the ...

family of Intel servers. This family is technically less advanced than System x. At the time of this writing, System x is being discontinued and replaced by the Lenovo ThinkSystem family of Intel servers.

Enterprise eX5 architecture

Enterprise X4 architecture

Numbering scheme

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.

IBM iDataPlex

IBM System x iDataPlex, introduced in 2008, was used by many

TOP500 The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computing, distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year. The first of these ...

supercomputers (as part of

IBM Intelligent Cluster The IBM Intelligent Cluster was a cluster solution for x86-based high-performance computing composed primarily of IBM ( System x, BladeCenter and System Storage) components, integrated with network switches from various vendors and optional high- ...

), including SuperMUC,

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

and

Stampede A stampede () is a situation in which a group of large animals suddenly start running in the same direction, especially because they are excited or frightened. Non-human species associated with stampede behavior include zebras, cattle, elephants ...

. Other smaller installations included

SciNet Consortium SciNet is a consortium of the University of Toronto and affiliated Ontario hospitals. It has received funding from both the federal and provincial government, Faculties at the University of Toronto, and affiliated hospitals. It is one of seve ...

's General Purpose Cluster It is an unusual form-factor in that you have two columns of 19" rack servers side-by-side in a single rack. This rack, unlike traditional racks, however was very shallow which is where the space saving came from for large installations. As such it only supports specially designed shallow servers. It was typically deployed in combination with a Rear Door Heat Exchanger (RDHx) to cool the exhaust heat with water. It was replaced with IBM NeXtScale in 2014.

Components

iDataPlex could be ordered as preconfigured rack tower (System x iDataPlex Rack with optional Rack management appliance), or as independent nodes.

Rack

iDataPlex 100U rack — compact dual rack ((1200x600mm footprint — instead of standard 1280x1050 (2x 42U rack))

Chassis

*System x iDataPlex 2U Flex chassis *System x iDataPlex 3U Flex chassis — same as 2U with another coolers and additional storage. Chassis also compatible with standard racks (with another rails).

Nodes

1U blade servers. *System x iDataPlex dx320 — 20? *System x iDataPlex dx340 — 20?? *System x iDataPlex dx360 M1 — 2008, *System x iDataPlex dx360 M2 — 2009, *System x iDataPlex dx360 M3 — 201?, *System x iDataPlex dx360 M4 — 2013,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibm System X System x Divested IBM products System x

History

Predecessors

IBM PS/2 Server

IBM PC Server

PC Server range

Numbering scheme

IBM Netfinity

Netfinity range

Numbering scheme

KVM cabling scheme

IBM eServer

IBM eServer range

=Numbering scheme

IBM eServer xSeries

=xSeries range

=Numbering scheme

=KVM cabling scheme

System x

IBM System x range

Lenovo System x range

Enterprise eX5 architecture

Enterprise X4 architecture

Numbering scheme

IBM iDataPlex

Components

Rack

Chassis

Nodes

See also

References