MacRumors.com

IBM announced the first in a line of servers powered by the Power5 processor today.

The new server, the eServer i5, is aimed at small and mid-sized businesses.

The eServer i5 systems are powered by IBM's next-generation POWER5 microprocessor, the most advanced 64-bit chip in the world. POWER5 features an impressive 276 million transistors per processor, and is manufactured with IBM's 0.13-micron copper wiring and SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) technologies. In addition to providing communications acceleration and chip multiprocessing, POWER5 offers simultaneous multithreading (SMT), which transforms a single processor into two processors, essentially allowing the chip to run two applications at the same time and reducing the time it requires to complete a task.

The new server/Power5 will become available starting on June 11, 2004.

Early rumors had hinted that future PowerPC chips may be derived from the Power5 processor.