IBM RS/6000

The RISC System/6000 is a family of RISC-based (Reduced Instruction Set Computer-based) Unix servers, workstations and supercomputers made by IBM in the 1990s. The RS/6000 family replaced the IBM RT PC computer platform in February 1990 and is the first computer line to see the use of IBM's POWER and PowerPC based microprocessors. In October 2000, the RS/6000 brand was retired for POWER-based servers and replaced by the eServer pSeries. Workstations continued under the RS/6000 brand until 2002, when new POWER/-based workstations were released under the IntelliStation POWER/ brand.

The RS/6000 floating-point execution unit (FPU) enabled major improvements in the speed and accuracy of floating-point operations. The key feature of the FPU was introducing the MAF (multiply-add fused) operation, which has since become standard in most modern processors.

History

After the RT PC—IBM's first Unix RISC workstation—achieved less than 2% market share, the company avoided using the RT name for its replacement. IBM's announcement of RS/6000 in February 1990 was its reentry into the fastest-growing segment of the PC market, and its use of AIX was the company's official endorsement of Unix. About 70 vendors demonstrated early versions of software at the introduction. About 100 more announced ports to the system, and IBM said it expected 1500 applications from 700 companies by the end of 1990.

IBM aggressively priced RS/6000 after its earlier failure to compete against Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Silicon Graphics. InfoWorld said that while RT PC "caused only laughter among competitors ... This time no one is laughing" at RS/6000, with performance superior to Sun and comparable prices. IBM said during the announcement that it was faster than competing systems from Sun, Hewlett-Packard, and Digital Equipment Corporation, and hoped that the company would have 15% of the workstation market by 1992. RS/6000's RISC technology also had a much better price/performance ratio than IBM's existing proprietary AS/400. Although the company described RS/6000 as being for scientific and engineering users, observers said that IBM intended it and AS/400 to compete with each other in the midrange system market, with non-technical software announcements beyond those available for competing workstations. The AS/400 division at IBM Rochester reportedly attempted to prevent the RS/6000 division at IBM Austin from selling the product at such a competitive price, and wanted to change its name to a number smaller than "400". An uninvolved company source said "The last thing IBM wanted to do was compete with itself. But it looks like that kind of thinking isn't going to work anymore".

The first RS/6000 models use the IBM Standard Micro Channel (SMC) bus; later models use PCI. Some later models conform to the PReP and CHRP standard platforms, co-developed with Apple and Motorola, with Open Firmware (OpenFW/OFW). The plan was to enable the RS/6000 to run multiple operating systems such as Windows NT, NetWare, OS/2, Solaris, Taligent, AIX and Mac OS but in the end only IBM's Unix variant AIX was used and supported on RS/6000. Linux is widely used on CHRP based RS/6000s, but support was added after the RS/6000 name was changed to eServer pSeries in 2000.

The RS/6000 family also includes the POWERserver servers, POWERstation workstations, and the IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer platform. While most machines are desktops, desksides, or rack-mounted, there are laptop models too. Famous RS/6000s include the PowerPC 604e-based Deep Blue supercomputer that beat world champion Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, and the POWER3-based ASCI White which was the fastest supercomputer in the world during 2000–2002.

Architecture

Hardware

Service processor

Many RS/6000 and subsequent pSeries machines came with a service processor, which booted itself when power was applied and continuously ran its own firmware, independent of the operating system. The service processor could call a phone number (via a modem) in case of serious failure with the machine. Early advertisements and documentation called the service processor "System Guard", (or SystemGuard) although this name was apparently dropped later on, roughly around the same time that the simplified RS/6000 name was adopted for the computer line itself.

Late in the RS/6000 cycle, the service processor was "converged" with the one used on the AS/400 machines.

Software

POWER machines typically ran AIX. Solaris, OS/2 and Windows NT were also ported to PowerPC. Later Linux was also used.

Some AIX systems support IBM Web-based System Manager.

Models

The Model N40 was a PowerPC-based laptop developed and manufactured by Tadpole Technology in conjunction with IBM. It was released on 25 March 1994, priced at US$12,000. The internal batteries could power the system for 45 minutes only and an external battery pack that lasted for 4 hours was available for this reason.

See also

Notes

General

External links

• at the Wayback Machine (archived 2000-03-01)
• IBM Archives
• 30 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine