HP Expands Itanium 2 Lineup

Hewlett-Packard launched a lineup of Intel Itanium 2 64-bit servers in early November. HP has added five new Itanium 2 servers to its Integrity server lineup, including the XC6000 HPTC Cluster, eight-way and 16-way standalone systems, a four-way rack-mounted system, and a Network Equipment Building System-compliant two-way system tuned for the telecom industry.

HP's new XC6000 HPTC Cluster is a self-contained, clustered rack of servers that can hold up to 512 Itanium 2 processors. The XC6000 is designed to further HP's clustered, scale-out server offerings through the addition of the 64-bit Intel processor and embedded interconnect hardware and software. HP also offers a 32-bit Intel Xeon-based version, the XC3000 HPTC Cluster. Other models joining HP's Integrity lineup of Itanium 2-based servers are the four-way rx4640, the eight-way rx7620, and the 16-way 8620.

CitiStreet LLC, a joint venture between CitiGroup Inc. and State Street Corp., plans to replace 64 PA-RISC processors in its two HP Superdome servers with Itanium 2 processors. CitiStreet in 2001 migrated its record-keeping application for retirement plans off an IBM mainframe and onto an HP Superdome running PA-RISC processors. The application--SunGard Data Systems Inc.'s Cobol-based OmniPlus--processes retirement-plan information for more than 5 million people working in academia, business, and government. CitiStreet estimates that move saved about $4 million annually. Now CitiStreet is looking to save even more money by moving to Itanium 2.

HP's partnership with Intel is a model that CitiStreet strives for in its business, CIO Barry Strasnick says. "Instead of spending the same billions of dollars as Intel, why not leverage their [combined] investment?"