International Business Machines Corp. Tuesday announced a mainframe computer three times more powerful than its previous version.

IBM, the world's largest computer company, also said customers show no signs of shunning the powerful systems in favor of cheaper servers from rivals.

The new eServer zSeries 990 starts at $1 million. IBM's computer-services arm, the largest such operation in the world, is also making the product available on-demand, similar to the way a utility supplies electricity.

The Armonk, New York, company launched the new mainframe's predecessor, the eServer z900, almost three years ago and has since sold more than 4,000 of them, said William Zeitler, who heads IBM's systems group which sells computer servers used in large corporate, government and university networks.

IBM built its business on the back of the mainframe computer. Many have dubbed this venerable technology a dinosaur, but it has nonetheless survived developments that have made most computers far smaller and cheaper than a mainframe.

The zSeries 990, code-named T-Rex, will probably be purchased by customers in the financial-services industry, where many companies need the ability to process millions of online transactions securely, quickly and reliably, Zeitler said.

Rivals were quick to criticize IBM's offering, which was widely expected. Hewlett-Packard Co, which has a competing product in its Superdome server, and Sun Microsystems Inc., which has its own high-end servers, including the Enterprise 1000, said IBM's mainframe locks customers in at high prices and doesn't give them choice.

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