Fujitsu PRIMERGY servers powered by Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processors offer new options for data centre scaling and virtualisation

Fujitsu Australia today announced five new PRIMERGY® dual-socket servers: the RX200 S3 and RX300 S3 rack servers, the TX200 S3 and TX300 S3 tower servers, and the BX620 S3 blade server. This third-generation of PRIMERGY servers features the latest processors from Intel® Corporation – the Dual Core Intel® Xeon® 5000 and 5100 Sequence which delivers increased performance and power efficiency.

PRIMERGY servers combine these processors with upgraded disk and memory subsystems to provide the performance demanded by data centre customers. Built-in virtualisation technology in these new Xeon® processors will provide data centre administrators with new options for consolidating their infrastructures to address power, cooling, and real estate cost challenges. These PRIMERGY servers also include a new integrated Remote Management Controller for more powerful remote management that simplifies server management in today’s increasing complex and virtualised environments.

“With integrated management and increased power and flexibility, these new PRIMERGY servers will play a key role in the Fujitsu’s strategy to optimise IT infrastructure,” said Alistair Latham, Executive General Manager, Product and Systems, Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand. “PRIMERGY blade server chassis also have the ability to mix both current and future-generation Intel® Xeon® servers in a single environment. This enables data centres to implement an optimal consolidation-based growth strategy without compromising their ability to leverage new technologies as they are introduced.”

“To avoid the cost of building new data centres, companies are increasingly demanding solutions that allow them to wring more computing power from their existing real estate,” said Vernon Turner, Group Vice President & General Manager at IDC. “Virtualisation is the key enabling technology of a consolidation strategy that not only conserves real estate, but also has the potential to drive down data centre power and cooling costs.”

The PRIMERGY S3 generation of servers integrate a powerful SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) RAID controller together with hot plug SAS hard disks to ensure high system performance, even with heavy I/O traffic. PCI-Express expansion slots give customers the choice to powerful system upgrades to increase scalability. The new PRIMERGY servers offer almost double the performance of the previous generation dual-core processor based PRIMERGY platforms. This increase in processor and I/O performance enable these new PRIMERGY servers to offer the performance required by both current and future generations of virtualisation solutions from vendors such as VMware, Xen and Microsoft.

The models also continue the PRIMERGY legacy of world-record benchmarks. The PRIMERGY BX620 S3 blade server has managed two brand-new world records and boasts the top two MMB3 benchmark performances. The BX620 S3 with Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® 5160 3.0 GHz processor ranks first at 13,500 MMB3 users, while the BX620 S3 with Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® 5080 3.73 GHz processor holds second place at 12,900 MMB3. A two-socket/dual-core PRIMERGY platform managed to outpace a competitor’s four-socket/dual-core system.1

Price and availability

The new S3 generation of PRIMERGY servers will be available in July 2006 with pricing starting at A$3,715.

Service and support

Professional services from Fujitsu ensure successful implementation and support of the most complex operating environments.

1The MAPI Messaging Benchmark 3 (MMB3) is the benchmarking standard for measuring the performance and scalability of computers running Exchange Server 2003. Its benchmarking workload and methodology serves as the standard for Exchange Server 2003 MAPI server comparison. The MMB3 workload is characteristic of a medium corporate mail environment.