IBM plans to follow rival server makers by introducing new low-power servers designed to reduce datacentre energy costs later this year.

The company's new BladeCenter HS21, and its System x 1U x3350 and 2U x3650 servers will use the latest 50-watt, quad-core Xeon processor from Intel, while one version of the BladeCenter HS21 will ship with a 4GB modular flash drive that uses less power than a magnetic hard disk.

IBM will also use AMD's 68-watt, dual-core Opteron processors in its BladeCenter LS21, LS41 and 2U x3655 systems, with clock speeds ranging from 1.8GHz to 2.6GHz.

The vendor will also add Intel's low-volt Xeon 5148 processor to its HS21 system. The 2.33GHz chip has a thermal envelope of 40 watts, according to Intel.