The Four Hundred

IBM Delivers Dynamic AIX Logical Partitioning, Readies More Regatta-M Servers

As expected, IBM will this week announce that it has delivered the AIX 5L Release 5.2 version of its Unix operating system for the pSeries machines, based on essentially the same hardware as the iSeries line. Sources familiar with IBM's plans also say Big Blue is readying its next "Regatta-M" midrange server for the pSeries line, along with Power4-II "GQ" processors, for a November launch. The Power4-II processors and various Regatta servers will presumably appear in 2003 in the iSeries line.

The dynamic logical partitioning support in AIX 5.2 is based heavily on the substantial work that OS/400 microcode programmers in the Rochester iSeries labs did in bringing mainframe partitions to the OS/400 platform in the late 1990s and early 2000. The granularity of partitions on AIX 5.2 is restricted to a single Power4 or Power4-II processor core, however. On the iSeries, the dynamic logical partitions can be set up for a small fraction of a single processor and span many or all processors in the machine. AIX dynamic logical partitions can span many or all processors in a Regatta box as well. Exactly when the dynamic part of the logical partitions will be available is unclear. My sources say that IBM will issue a statement of direction for AIX 5.2 for dynamic partitions that can expand and contract as policies controlling workloads dictate. In the interim, AIX 5.2 customers will, presumably, have to do some of this partition management by hand.

In addition to this enhanced logical partitioning support, IBM is expected to debut dynamic processor sparing in 16-way pSeries 670 and 32-way pSeries 690 Regatta servers. This capability allows customers who acquire Capacity Upgrade on Demand (CUoD) configurations (which have extra processors in the box to cover peak loads) to permanently and transparently activate CUoD processors, in lieu of a failing or failed processor, in these Regatta machines. IBM offers CUoD on certain iSeries models already, and it seems likely that it will soon offer this dynamic hot spare CPU support, too.

IBM has kept the exact pricing and features of the new Power4-II processors a pretty good secret, but based on advances in chip-making processes, cranking the clock speed to 1.5 GHz and 1.6 GHz on the Power4-IIs from the current 1.1 GHz and 1.3 GHz speeds is a reasonable assumption, which has been backed up by rumors that have been circulating in the past few weeks. I've also heard that IBM has been able to crank up the clock speed on the Power4-II processors to 1.8 GHz. Another source told me that IBM is offering the Power4-IIs at 1.2 GHz or 1.45 GHz speeds in some pSeries machines. I'll tell you when I find out more. The important things for iSeries customers to know is that IBM is delivering on its Power4 and Power4-II roadmap and that eventually IBM will get around to offering these machines to iSeries customers--hopefully with killer prices and great bang for the buck.

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