• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • IBM Sunsets More Power Systems Features

    July 20, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Big Blue is cleaning house once again in the Power Systems product line. Or more precisely, in the products that were actually known as the iSeries and pSeries and then the System i and System p in the Power4 and Power5 generations. Get out your flashlight and your old paperwork, and maybe your bifocals if you sit at a computer screen too much like I do, because if you have Power4 or Power5 iron, you will need to see if you need to buy any of these vintage features, conversions, or activations before IBM stops selling them itself or through partner channels.

    As detailed in announcement letter 909-152, a slew of obsolete feature conversions have been withdrawn from the IBM catalog effective July 14, and a bunch of other features and conversions get the axe on October 2. More significant, perhaps, is the November 27 cutoff date to buy processor and memory activations for new Model 8XX Power4 boxes. (I am amazed that anyone would pay for such a thing, to be honest.) November 27 is the cutoff date for sales of new features that are unique to the System i 515, 520, 525, 550, and 570 boxes that are based on Power5 processors, and other selected features and feature conversions.

    As I explained in June in a clarification that ran in the wake of a similar set of withdrawal announcements that IBM did back in May, any latent capacity that you have in your machines already–such as processor or memory features that can be activated on demand–are not killed off when IBM makes these announcements. Just the ability to buy new features and activate them is killed off.

    The July 14 kill date for feature conversions includes processor conversions within the iSeries Model 810, 820, and 825 machines, as well as a few iSeries 595 conversions.

    The November 27 expiration includes new shipments of OS/400 V5R3 on AS/400 7XX, iSeries 8XX, and iSeries and System i 5XX boxes. You won’t be able to get OS/400 V5R3M5, the interim update that supported the initial Power6 machines after that either, which was also available on other earlier iSeries and System i machines. Some WAN, asynch communications, and Ethernet adapters, as well as PCI-X tape controllers, 36 GB DAT72 drives, HSL2/RIO2 bus adapters, SCSI cables are also buying the farm.

    On October 2, some HSL/RIO cables and conversions to the new HSL2/RIO2 cables are getting the heave-ho, and base processor and memory activations for Power5-based Power 550, 570, and 595 machines and new full 5250 Enterprise Enablement features will join the choir eternal.

    Now, just to confuse everybody, there’s a different batch of withdrawals that IBM did last week, in announcement letter 909-153, which only covers the Power 575 supercomputing node that are based on the original Power6 processors. (This is product number 9125-F2A, in case you didn’t know.) Effective July 14, the 69 GB SAS-style solid state disk, a bunch of 15K RPM SAS disk drives, a bunch of power cores and rack kits and cables have bought it. And IBM is withdrawing as of November 27 some graphics cards and various adapters that are used in workstation configurations of the Power Systems; these products have been upgraded to PCI-Express variants.

    RELATED STORIES

    Clarification on IBM’s Power Systems Withdrawals

    Older Power Iron Starts Heading for the Dustbin

    Sundry Spring Power Systems Storage Enhancements

    Power Systems Finally Get Solid State Disks

    New Power6+ Iron: The Feeds and Speeds

    IBM Launches Power6+ Servers–Again

    IBM Adds New SAS, SSD Disks to Servers

    Sundry October Power Systems Announcements

    IBM Doubles the Cores on Midrange Power Systems

    Various System i and Power Systems i Nips and Tucks

    Power Systems Memory Prices Slashed to Promote Virtualization

    Sundry July Power Systems Announcements



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 18, Number 27 -- July 20, 2009

    Sponsored by
    VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Trying to balance stability and agility in your IBM i environment?

    Join this webinar and explore Visual LANSA 16 – our enhanced professional low-code platform designed to help organizations running on IBM i evolve seamlessly for what’s next.

    🎙️VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Break Monolithic IBM i Applications and Unlock New Value

    Explore modernization without rewriting. Decouple monolithic applications and extend their value through integration with modern services, web frameworks, and cloud technologies.

    🗓️ July 10, 2025

    ⏰ 9 AM – 10 AM CDT (4 PM to 5 PM CEST)

    See the webinar schedule in your time zone

    Register to join the webinar now

    What to Expect

    • Get to know Visual LANSA 16, its core features, latest enhancements, and use cases
    • Understand how you can transition to a MACH-aligned architecture to enable faster innovation
    • Discover native REST APIs, WebView2 support, cloud-ready Azure licensing, and more to help transform and scale your IBM i applications

    Read more about V16 here.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    JDA Plots Course Forward for MMS, and–Surprise–It’s Java IBM Kills Secure Perspectives Tool

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 18 Issue: 27

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • Sundry Power Systems i Storage Announcements
    • Servers Slammed in IBM’s Second Quarter
    • IBM Sunsets More Power Systems Features
    • As I See It: Injured Wing
    • Fincham Rides Point for iManifest EMEA
    • IT Organizations Tuning Up Employee Recruitment Efforts
    • Sun Shareholders Vote to Sell to Oracle
    • IBM Cranks Out Power Systems i Redbooks
    • Criminal Enterprise or Legit Business? It Can Be Hard to Tell, Cisco Says
    • Pat Townsend Secure with New President

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
    • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
    • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
    • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25
    • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
    • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
    • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
    • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle