IBM on Tuesday unveiled an eServer model specifically designed for building supercomputing systems.

The eServer p5 575, powered by IBM's Power5 processor, is designed for building frame-mounted, clustered supercomputing systems. The thin, blade server-like computer is a follow up to IBM's previous supercomputing system, the eServer p655.

Supercomputing is used for intensive computational tasks performed in such areas as genome research, automotive crash testing, petroleum exploration, and oceanographic, atmospheric and energy studies.

The latest eServer, introduced at the SC2004 Conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., is unusual in that it was designed specifically for building high-performance computing systems based on clustering, which is the stringing together of multiple computers, so they can perform as one.

"Most notable about (the eServer 575) is that it's so explicitly designed for clustering," Gordon Haff, analyst for market researcher Illuminata Inc., said. "This is really not designed as a standalone system. This is designed as a component of a cluster. It's really where the focus of high-performance computing is today."

Up to 64 eight-processor p5 575s can be linked together to work as one 512-processor system, IBM said. The new server is planned to be available with 1.9 GHz Power5 processors and to support Linux and IBM's AIX Version 5.2 and 5.3 operating systems. The computer is scheduled for release in the first quarter of next year.

The growing high-performance computing market today is dominated by two-way, rack-mounted Linux systems on the x86 platform, Haff said.

"There's still a significant chunk of the high-performance computing market that's interested in designs optimized in one way or another, whether it's the node itself (like the p5 575) or whether it's the interconnect or some other form of packaging, like blades," Haff said.