IBM introduced new servers based on Power8 processors

This week presents servers based on powerful processors of the new generation Power8. The project is being implemented with the support of the OpenPower consortium. The consortium includes corporations such as IBM, Google, Nvidia, and others (25 companies in total). Note that as a member of the OpenPower Foundation, IBM this time provided the consortium members with detailed information and specifications of their new processors. Typically, chip and server hardware manufacturers do not open up detailed technical documentation for third-party vendors; in this case, this is done so that competitors and IBM partners can create new productive chips and server platforms using ideas proposed by the corporation.

It is worth noting that the development of Power8 processors took about 3 years and 2.4 billion dollars. The processor architecture (called the symmetric superscalar architecture) combines up to 12 cores operating in the SMT8 mode, the total crystal area is 640 square millimeters. On the chip fits 4 billion transistors. Compared to Power7, the performance of the new generation of processors has increased about 1.6 times.
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Power8 processors are manufactured using 22nm technology, which made it possible to increase the number of cores on a chip from 8 to 12, raise the frequency up to 5 GHz and increase the amount of cache memory of each level. An additional eDRAM memory chip is also used as a 128 MB fourth level cache (optional).


Image By: The Linley Group.


Microarchitecture microarchitecture block diagram of an IBM Power8 processor (Image author: The Linley Group).

OpenPower servers are “sharpened” to perform high-performance tasks and work with a large amount of data. Thus, the speed of working with RAM in new servers has increased up to 230 GB / s. According to the creators of the servers, when working with Big Data OpenPOWER show performance 50 times higher than in the case of using servers based on x86 or ARM.

Companies that have tested the servers claim that when migrating to OpenPOWER, some business applications began to work thousands of times faster, processing data in just a few tens of seconds instead of a few hours.

“This is a new stage in the development of high-level server systems. OpenPOWER servers are representatives of the new server ecosystem, able to work with huge amounts of data, ”says Tom Rozamilia, senior vice president of IBM Systems.



Note that, based on Power Systems, three solutions are presented at once: IBM Solution for BLU Acceleration, IBM Solution for Hadoop and IBM Solution for Analytics. The latter solution is optimized for analyzing huge datasets, plus, IBM Solution for Analytics integrates with Cognos, SPSS and DB2 with BLU Acceleration.



Together with the hardware, there are two special Linux assemblies designed to work on new server systems. This is Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS with Ubuntu OpenStack Management Toolkit and PowerKVM compatible with Power Systems open KVM virtualization platform. Canonical representatives were involved in the assembly work.

Starting June 10, deliveries of new Power Systems S814, S822 and S824 servers (with AIX, IBM i, Linux operating systems) on IBM POWER8 processors will begin, in June-August two servers of the S line will be available with Linux OS: Power Systems S812L and S822L.

Configuration of 1- and 2-socket systems, for installation in 2U and 4U racks. The starting price of new systems is $ 7973 (or $ 200 per month / 36 months). It is worth noting that Power Systems solutions are available as part of the IBM Global Financing program.



Via ibm.com