IBM will this week begin offering its first AMD Opteron-based BladeCenter (the LS20), which is aimed particularly at the high performance computing segment.

Generally defined, high performance computing is used in industries such as financial services, research and health care, for example, where memory-intensive computing is required.

According to xSeries product manager at IBM SA, Bevan Lock, the addition of the AMD processors gives customers the opportunity to be more flexible with their choice of processor.

?They can mix and match processors in a single BladeCenter, having a combination of Xeon, Opteron and even PowerPC processors, depending on their needs,? he says.

IBM has been seen as cautious in delivering AMD systems to customers, the LS20 being only the third AMD offering (and second server) from the company. However, Lock maintains that AMD is able to compete in the generally Intel-dominated enterprise space with good results.

HP has been putting a lot more focus on Opteron for its blade offerings, targeting them at a much wider audience. But Lock says that, while blade servers are ?not for everyone?, they do have very specific uses.

?We have seen growing demand for blade servers,? he says, ?and we have found that the Opteron offerings fit nicely into the two-socket high performance computing and Linux segments.?

According to a report on IDG, IBM is positioning the LS20 as a key part of its prepackaged eServer Cluster 1350. The company has also announced an expansion of the switch and interconnect options.

?One of the big drawcards for IBM,? adds Lock, ?is that we have managed to get one of the industry?s lowest power consumptions in our BladeCenters.?

In Gartner?s 2004 report for blade server power requirements, IBM?s BladeCenter came out tops for 2-socket blades at 8 872W using Xeon DP processors. Sun Microsystems? SunFire B200x uses 8 801W with Xeon LV (low voltage) processors, and HP?s Proliant BL20 uses a massive 13 891W.

?Lower power consumption translates directly to total cost of ownership savings through less heat and power loss in AC-to-DC conversions,? Lock says.

Both IBM and HP maintain that the blade market in SA is healthy and growing. Paul Collins, business unit manager for industry standard servers at HP SA, recently told Computing SA that blade servers have moved well away from bleeding edge status, and are showing huge upfront cost savings for larger enterprises.