While Unix may not be growing as fast as other segments of the market, it accounts for nearly a third of all server shipments. In its latest Quarterly Server Tracker, IDC says that Unix revenue grew just 0.5% in the first quarter of 2007, compared to the same quarter a year ago, but it also noted that Unix sales reached $4 billion for the quarter, a good chunk of the $12.4 billion in overall server sales.

So it’s not surprising to see all the systems vendors focusing on the midrange and high-end. Sun is expected to come out with its next generation UltraSparc processors by year-end and has its Rock processor on tap for 2008. HP recently updated its Itanium line.

And last week, IBM offered the latest update to the Unix market with its long-awaited Power6 processor, revamping its IBM System p 570 with the new chip.

The new dual-core Power6 processor runs at 4.7 GHz, double the speed of the Power5. IBM claims that while the Power6 systems will offer higher levels of processing than Power5 servers, power and energy demands will remain the same. Get details of the server, which can be configured with two to 16 processing cores, chip speeds of 3.5 GHz, 4.2 GHz or 4.7 GHz and 8MB of Layer 2 cache, here. Read the IDG News Service report on the new processor and server here.

The Power6 also offers some fine-grained energy management capabilities, as well as improved virtualization features. For the first time, users will be able to move live virtual machines from one physical server to another. The feature – called Power6 Live Partition Mobility – is now in beta. IBM executives say the technology should be generally available later in the year.

I talked about this virtualization advancement, as well as other Unix enhancements in an article I wrote earlier this year about the changing Unix market. Check it out here.

In the meantime, expect IBM to introduce Power6 across its System p and System i server lines. The first with Power6, the p 570, will be available at the beginning of June with a starting price of around $60,000. And keep in mind that these systems aren’t just for Unix. While IBM will be rolling out AIX 6 in November, analysts expect these Power6 systems also to be prime platforms for Linux consolidation. What will you be running on Power6? Let me know.