HP to bring Itanium, x86 systems into one platform

BANGALORE, INDIA: HP announced a new project Odyssey with a roadmap to unify UNIX and x86 server architectures into a single platform.

Organisations need the availability and resilience of UNIX-based platforms along with the familiarity and cost-efficiency of industry-standard platforms, said the company in a release.

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HP’s new development roadmap includes ongoing innovations to HP Integrity servers, HP NonStop systems and the HP-UX and OpenVMS operating systems.

The roadmap also includes delivering blades with Intel Xeon processors for the HP Superdome 2 enclosure (code name “DragonHawk”) and the scalable c-Class blade enclosures (code named “HydraLynx”), while fortifying Windows and Linux environments with innovations from HP-UX within the next two years.

With the availability of 'DragonHawk', clients will be able to run mission-critical workloads on HP-UX on Intel Itanium-based blades while simultaneously running workloads on Microsoft Windows or Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Intel Xeon-based blades in the same Superdome 2 enclosure, adds the company in the release.

“Clients have been asking us to expand the mission-critical experience that is delivered today with HP-UX on Integrity to an x86-based infrastructure,” said Martin Fink, senior vice president and general manager, Business Critical Systems, HP. “HP plans to transform the server landscape for mission-critical computing by using the flexibility of HP BladeSystem and bringing key HP technology innovations from Integrity and HP-UX to the x86 ecosystem. Unlike the competition, HP offers an open, integrated, single platform approach.”

By expanding HP Converged Infrastructure and bringing select innovations to x86 systems, HP will enable clients running Linux or Windows to:

Increase scalability with 32-socket 'DragonHawk' symmetrical multiprocessing x86 systems.

Increase reliability and flexibility with two-, four- and eight-socket 'HydraLynx' scalable x86 server blades with virtualization and availability, all packaged in c-Class enclosures of HP BladeSystem.

Increase availability of critical Linux applications with the HP Serviceguard solution.

Boost flexibility and availability of x86 systems with HP nPartitions technology (nPars).

Boost reliability and resiliency of x86 systems with fault-tolerant HP Crossbar Fabric.