Joseph Reger, CTO at Fujitsu Siemens Computers, sees the new systems as exceptionally economical and well-prepared for future developments. He stressed that the SQ series will have all the features that are typical of mainframes. In particular, he said, excellent transaction performance will make them ideal for use in banks and book entry systems. Fujitsu Siemens Computers also claims that the new series will be the first set of mainframes on which standard Linux and Windows applications will be able to run as guest systems alongside BS2000/OSD.

Peter Gleissner, Director Sales EMEA and Managing Director Intel Germany, sees the new SQ Business Servers as a stable, high-performance consolidation platform for corporate customers: "By using high-end x86 technology from Intel in the ongoing development of its BS2000/OSD operating system, Fujitsu Siemens Computers is giving companies the chance to run their enterprise applications on a platform whose reliability and transaction performance are unrivaled. That is an attractive prospect indeed."

The new line will complement the existing range of BS2000/OSD Business Servers, which covers the entire performance spectrum. The SQ Business Servers are the next logical step in Fujitsu Siemens Computers' strategy of porting BS2000/OSD operating system software and applications to standard hardware technology. High-end x86 technology from Intel is experiencing dynamic development and is very widespread on the market. The new platform will also enable customers to run their Linux- and Windows-based applications on the same system.

Yet another benefit is that x86 technology enjoys a broad base of support among independent software vendors - all of which points to a bright long-term outlook for this future-proof technology platform. Users get a flexible platform on which to consolidate their server landscapes to mainframe standard, and that with a low total cost of ownership. Advanced virtualization technologies supply the necessary interfaces and ensure that hardware resources can be allocated to guest systems as and when they are needed.

The XEON MP-type x86 processors used for the servers today boast extensive functionality that satisfies even the exacting demands of mainframe environments. The "reliability availability security" (RAS) features that are so vital to the operation of high-end servers are implemented as standard, as are error correction code (ECC), memory scrubbing, single device data correction (SDDC), hot spare, hot plug and RAID caching functions and redundancy technologies.

The new SQ Business Servers will be on the market from the end of 2008. Additional SQ models featuring enhanced monoprocessor and overall system performance are planned for release in fall 2009. In the latter series, VM2000 virtual machine systems will also support concurrent operation of multiple BS2000/OSD guest systems. Then, as of 2010, Linux and Windows guest systems will also be able to run on the SQ Business Servers alongside BS2000/OSD.