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IBM announces the general availability of Model C (24 way) and Model D (32 way) eServer 

z990.  

In February IBM ships    to Discover Financial Services    the 2,000th IBM eServer p650, only 

two months after the product's initial availability. That same month, the company announces the 

eServer pSeries 630, leveraging IBM's POWER4+ microprocessor as the industry's most 

powerful entry level (4 way) Web server. In May, IBM announces: an ultra fast high end IBM 

eServer p690 system that provides a 65 percent performance boost over its predecessor, a new 

mid range eServer p670 system that provides 90 percent better performance than the previous 

version of the p670, and a new ultra dense high performance eServer p655 that delivers 

performance increases of as much as 83 percent. Also in May, the company rolls out a new  

low end IBM eServer system    the p615    that offers 110 percent more performance at one 

third lower cost than its predecessor (the p610), making it an attractive option for small  and 

medium sized businesses. One month later, IBM begins shipping the first p690s with POWER4+ 

microprocessors. 

As part of the broadest transformation of its eServer iSeries in more than a decade, IBM 

announces iSeries 825 and 870, which join the iSeries 890 at the high end of the iSeries family. 

Used by more than 200,000 customers around the world, the IBM eServer iSeries is one of the 

industry's most popular servers.  

The company introduces the IntelliStation POWER 275, the first workstation to include IBM's 

POWER4+ microprocessor technology, with triple the performance at a lower cost than its 

predecessor. In July, IBM rolls out IntelliStation M Pro models 6220 and 6230 that offer 

increased graphics performance for users in such fields as engineering, digital content creation 

and electronic design automation.  

IBM reports that the first servers based on its next generation POWER5 microprocessors are up 

and running in IBM's Poughkeepsie, N.Y., laboratories. Internal performance tests indicate that 

POWER5 based eServer systems, which should begin shipping to customers in 2004, are 

expected to offer four times the system performance over the first POWER4 based servers.  

The IBM eServer xSeries 440, using IBM TotalStorage FAStT700 storage, sets a performance 

record for a 16 way server running the TPC C online transaction processing benchmark. In June, 

IBM introduces the eServer xSeries 445 based on the second generation of IBM's Enterprise X 

Architecture technology that will scale up to 32 of the newest Intel Xeon processors MP. That 

same month, the company also announces the eServer xSeries 450, the first IBM Enterprise X 

Architecture based system to use the new Itanium 2 processor with 6MB of level 3 cache 

memory and the eServer x382 that includes up to two Itanium 2 processors in a 2U (2.25 inches) 

system that is optimized for the Linux cluster configurations used primarily by the technical and 

scientific communities.  

In January IBM introduces a new ThinkPad R40 notebook computer equipped with three major 

new technologies    a comprehensive new approach to wireless leadership, easier access to 

service and support, and a broad set of usability improvements. Two months later, IBM 

completely redesigns its flagship ThinkPad T40 notebook computer with industry leading  

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