IBM Power Systems

IBM Power Systems is a family of server computers from IBM that are based on its Power processors. It was created in 2008 as a merger of the System p and System i product lines.

IBM Power Systems

IBM Power S822LC
Also known as	IBM Power (2008–2009)
Manufacturer	International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
Release date	April 2, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-04-02)
Operating system	AIX, IBM i, Linux on Power[1]
CPU	IBM Power
Predecessor	IBM System i, IBM System p
Website	Official website

History

IBM had two distinct POWER- and PowerPC-based hardware lines since the early 1990s:

• Servers running processors based on the IBM PowerPC-AS architecture in the AS/400 family (later known as iSeries, then System i) running OS/400 (later known as i5/OS, and now IBM i)
• Servers and workstations using POWER and PowerPC processors in the RS/6000 family (later known as pSeries, then System p), running IBM AIX and Linux on Power.

After the introduction of the POWER4 processor in 2001, there was little difference between both the "p" and the "i" hardware; the only differences were in the software and services offerings. With the introduction of the POWER5 processor in 2004, even the product numbering was synchronized. The System i5 570 was virtually identical to the System p5 570.

2018 Sierra supercomputer, based on Power System nodes

In April 2008, IBM officially merged the two lines of servers and workstations under the same name, Power,^[2] and later Power Systems, with identical hardware and a choice of operating systems, software, and service contracts,^[3] based formerly on a POWER6 architecture. The PowerPC line was discontinued.

With Release 8 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, IBM has completed transition of POWER8 and POWER9 servers to little-endian mode for Linux.^[4][5][6] AIX and IBM i continue to run in big-endian mode.

Systems

IBM Power Systems models:

• 2008/2009
  • BladeCenter JS12 Express
  • BladeCenter JS22 Express
  • BladeCenter JS23 Express
  • BladeCenter JS43 Express
  • Power 520 Express
  • Power 550 Express
  • Power 560 Express
  • Power 570
  • Power 575
  • Power 595
• 2010
  • BladeCenter PS700 Express
  • BladeCenter PS701 Express
  • BladeCenter PS702 Express
  • Power 710/730 Express (8231-E2B) (1~2 4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)^[7]
  • Power 720 Express (8202-E4B) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPU)^[8]
  • Power 740 Express (8205-E6B) (1~2 4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)^[8]
  • Power 750 Express (8233-E8B) (1~4 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)^[9]
  • Power 755 (8236-E8C) (4 8-core POWER7 CPUs) – for high-performance computing (HPC)^[9]
  • Power 770
  • Power 780
  • Power 795
• 2011
  • Power 710 Express (8231-E1C) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPU)^[10]
  • Power 720 Express (8202-E4C) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPU)^[11]
  • Power 730 Express (8231-E2C) (2 4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)^[10]
  • Power 740 Express (8205-E6C) (1~2 4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)^[11]
  • Power 775 – also known as PERCS
• 2012
  • Flex System p260
  • Flex System p460
  • Flex System p24L (Linux only)
• 2013
  • Power 710 Express (8231-E1D) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7+ CPU)^[12]
  • Power 720 Express (8202-E4D) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7+ CPU)^[13]
  • Power 730 Express (8231-E2D) (2 6 or 8-core POWER7+ CPUs)^[12]
  • Power 740 Express (8205-E6D) (1~2 6 or 8-core POWER7+ CPUs)^[13]
  • Power 750 Express (8408-E8D) (1~4 8-core POWER7+ DCMs)^[14]
  • Power 760 (9109-RMD) (1~4 12-core POWER7+ DCMs)^[14]
• 2014

  

  POWER8-based IBM Power Systems E870 can be configured with up to 80 processor cores and 8 TB of memory.

  • Power Systems S821LC and S821LC
  • Power Systems S822 and S822L
  • Power Systems S814
  • Power Systems S824 and S824L
  • Power Systems E870
  • Power Systems E880
• 2015
  • Power Systems E850
  • Power Systems S812L and S812LC
  • Power Systems S822LC
• 2017
  • Power Systems AC922
  • Power Systems LC922
  • Power Systems IC922
  • Power Systems L922
  • Power Systems S914
  • Power Systems S922
  • Power Systems S924
  • Power Systems H922
  • Power Systems H924
  • Power Systems E950
  • Power Systems E980
• 2021
  • Power E1080^[15]
• 2022^[16]
  • Power S1014
  • Power S1022s
  • Power S1022
  • Power S1024
• 2022
  • Power E1050 ^[17]
• 2024
  • Power S1012^[18]

IBM PowerVM provides the virtualisation solution for Power Systems servers.

See also

• IBM BladeCenter
• PureSystems

Preceded by IBM System i	IBM Power Systems 2008 - current
Preceded by IBM System p

References

1. "System Software Maps". IBM. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
2. Haff, Gordon. "IBM: i + p = Power". CNET. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
3. "IBM Power Systems: What is the new Power Equation". IBM. April 2, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-08-02.
4. IBM. "IBM United States Software Announcement 219-234". IBM. International Business Machines Corporation. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
5. IBM. "IBM United States Software Announcement 219-234" (PDF). IBM. International Business Machines Corporation. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
6. Timothy Prickett Morgan (10 June 2019). "The Transition To RHEL 8 Begins On Power Systems". ITJungle. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
7. "IBM Power 710 and 730 Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM Redbooks. IBM. 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
8. "IBM Power 720 and 740 Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM Redbooks. IBM. 2012-12-03. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
9. "IBM Power 750 and 755 Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM Redbooks. IBM. 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
10. "IBM Power 710 and 730 Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM Redbooks. IBM. 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
11. "IBM Power 720 and 740 Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM Redbooks. IBM. 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
12. "IBM Power 710 and 730 Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM Redbooks. IBM. 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2022-10-01.
13. "IBM Power 720 and 740 Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM Redbooks. IBM. 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
14. "IBM Power 750 and 760 Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM Redbooks. IBM. 2013-06-24. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
15. "IBM unveils new generation of IBM Power servers for frictionless, scalable hybrid cloud". IBM. 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
16. "IBM Power S1014, S1022s, S1022, and S1024: Technical Overview and Introduction" (PDF). IBM. 2022-08-01. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
17. "The Scale-Out and Midrange Power10 Servers Are Here". IBM. 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
18. "New IBM Power server extends AI workloads from core to cloud to edge for added business value across industries". IBM. 2024-05-07. Retrieved 2024-05-07.

External links

• Power Systems (Power Systems for UNIX, and Linux Clients) – IBM.com
• IBM Power Systems Redbooks
• It's Official: Now We're Power Systems and i for Business – ITjungle.com
• Hardware, OS Get New Names--And That's a Good Thing – IBM Systems Magazine.com
• IBM IT Infrastructure web page
• IBM Systems Power Systems Magazine