If you have been using IBM Blades for a while, you would know that currently IBM does not offer any Intel four socket blades. The only four socket blades offered by IBM at the moment is an AMD blade. IBM Has not offered a four processor intel blade for over 2 years, since HS40. If you were hoping to get a four socket intel blade into your IBM Chassis then read below.

As part of his keynote address today, Sean Maloney, General Manager at Intel, disclosed that IBM will soon have a 4 socket blade using the next generation Intel® Xeon® processor. The blade is based on IBM’s next generation of X-Architecture, eX5. This new blade extends IBM’s influence in the fast growing high-end x86 marketplace, and opens up a range of new application environments for clients.

It seems the IBM blades platform is going to even improve its position as the leading platform for virtualizaiton. As soon these blades get released, IBM Blades will have almost no limitation in comparison of their counter part rack mounted servers.

For more about these new blades please check at blade.org.