• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Rolling Thunder Rollout for Power7 Processors Next Year

    October 26, 2009 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    I’ve been getting a lot of questions from readers of The Four Hundred about the timing and configuration of entry Power Systems servers based on the future Power7 processors. People are not only worried about when the entry machines are going to be available and what their configurations might look like, but like me, your peers out there in AS/400 Land are more than a little bit worried that IBM might somehow not put the i operating system on the entry Power7 boxes, even as it does put AIX and Linux on them.

    I haven’t heard anything from inside Big Blue that would confirm any such talk, but I do know that more than 95 percent of the OS/400 and i customer base can satisfy their current computing needs with a Power 520 box with one or two Power6 or Power6+ cores, so doubling up the performance does not necessarily get IBM anything, or its customers for that matter, unless IBM can convince a lot of shops to ditch Windows for Linux and move Windows infrastructure work to logical partitions running on Power iron.

    If I were IBM, and I wanted to bolster the Power Systems i business, this is precisely what I would be focusing on. If I had to run the Windows applications in emulation mode, I would do that, too. Or, maybe I would simply license Windows 2008 and port it to Power iron and be done with it. Or maybe I would be putting Opteron processors on the same system board as Power6+ processors so Windows could run on the boxes themselves. All I do know for sure is this: I would be doing something differently than IBM’s current plan, which is to let Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Fujitsu target OS/400 and i shops, surrounding them with non-Blue x64 iron and then start talking about how the iSeries, System i, or Power Systems i server is the real problem in the data center.

    Back in September, I gave you the lowdown on the packaging that IBM would be using for the Power7 chips, and the information is still not complete. But it looks like four-core and maybe six-core Power7 chips, with somewhat crimped memory and I/O, will be available in rack, tower, and blade servers with one or two sockets. Midrange and high-end servers will get chips with six or eight cores, and spanning up to as many as 32 processor sockets in a single system image.

    IBM has not said much about when the Power7 machines would make their debut, but Mark Loughridge, the company’s chief financial officer, gave Wall Street a pep speech about future servers to get them excited about next year’s potential rebound in system sales.

    “Our 45 nanometer technology was sold out in the quarter,” Loughridge said, referring to the chip making plant that IBM has in East Fishkill, New York. This is where the Power line of chips as well as IBM’s mainframe engines and its most sophisticated Power processors (such as the Cell and Xenon chips used in game consoles) are etched onto silicon and cut into chips. “When you look at the broader demand for our 45nm technology, we are building Power7 now, and are on track for our systems launch in the first half of 2010. We have strong yields, in fact we are running five months ahead of our 65nm ramp. So this is going very well.”

    Loughridge then went on to say that IBM would be staging the Power7 rollout over the course of 2010, with the chip coming in high-end systems, and midrange boxes, and then he quickly added, almost as an afterthought, that it would be in entry systems, too. I wouldn’t read too much into what Loughridge talked about systems getting the Power7 chips. He added that IBM would be putting new System z mainframes into the field next year, too.

    Ian Bramley, who is the managing director at Software Strategies, a British IT consultancy, scattered some roadmap stuff into a recent report, entitled System z10 vs. HP Integrity, No Contest. (You can get that report here right off IBM’s own Web site, which presumably lends some credence to what Bramley is saying.) Bramley is claiming that the first Power7-based machines are due to be announced at the end of the first quarter of 2010, and that the System z11 mainframe systems, sporting revved up quad-core z engines, running at around 5 GHz (thanks to a shrink to 45 nanometer processes) and adding more threads per core, are due late in the third quarter of 2010. Bramley suggests that the Power 595 will be getting the Power7 chips first.

    This is a different order from past IBM announcements. Power6 and Power6+ chips appeared in midrange boxes first, then low-end boxes, then high-end boxes. In fact, the Power6+ chips never made it into high-end Power 595 boxes. It will be interesting to see if this turns out to be the announcement order. I will keep my ear to the ground for you. Let me know if you hear anything.

    RELATED STORIES

    Steady as She Goes for IBM’s Third Quarter

    Start Planning for Power7 Iron Now

    The Feeds and Guessed Speeds of Power7

    IBM to Reveal Power7 Secrets at Hot Chips

    Power 7: Lots of Cores, Lots of Threads

    IBM Touts Power Systems Prowess on SAP Tests

    With No Power6 QCMs, IBM Waits for Power7

    IBM Launches Power6+ Servers–Again

    Come On Out, Power6+, You Win

    Power vs. Nehalem: Time to Double Up and Double Down

    Power vs. Nehalem: Scalability Is So 1995, Cash is So 2009

    IBM and Resellers Do the iLoyalty Blitz

    i Roadmaps: Here Be Dragons

    IBM Doubles the Cores on Midrange Power Systems

    More Power7 Details Emerge, Thanks to Blue Waters Super

    Bang for the Buck: Raising the System iQ



                         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 38 -- October 26, 2009

    Sponsored by
    WorksRight Software

    Do you need area code information?
    Do you need ZIP Code information?
    Do you need ZIP+4 information?
    Do you need city name information?
    Do you need county information?
    Do you need a nearest dealer locator system?

    We can HELP! We have affordable AS/400 software and data to do all of the above. Whether you need a simple city name retrieval system or a sophisticated CASS postal coding system, we have it for you!

    The ZIP/CITY system is based on 5-digit ZIP Codes. You can retrieve city names, state names, county names, area codes, time zones, latitude, longitude, and more just by knowing the ZIP Code. We supply information on all the latest area code changes. A nearest dealer locator function is also included. ZIP/CITY includes software, data, monthly updates, and unlimited support. The cost is $495 per year.

    PER/ZIP4 is a sophisticated CASS certified postal coding system for assigning ZIP Codes, ZIP+4, carrier route, and delivery point codes. PER/ZIP4 also provides county names and FIPS codes. PER/ZIP4 can be used interactively, in batch, and with callable programs. PER/ZIP4 includes software, data, monthly updates, and unlimited support. The cost is $3,900 for the first year, and $1,950 for renewal.

    Just call us and we’ll arrange for 30 days FREE use of either ZIP/CITY or PER/ZIP4.

    WorksRight Software, Inc.
    Phone: 601-856-8337
    Fax: 601-856-9432
    Email: software@worksright.com
    Website: www.worksright.com

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Setting Up SNTP Time Synchronization on an i5/OS Box Artech Drives Productivity with ‘Evolution’ Update to GeneXus IDE

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 18 Issue: 38

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • IBM Rolls Up an i 6.1.1 Dot Release
    • The Curtain Rises a Bit on the Next i OS, Due in 2010
    • IBM Taps New Server GM in Wake of Scandal
    • As I See It: The Salary Reduction Plan
    • Various Power Systems I/O and Storage Enhancements
    • IT Spending to Bounce Back Some in 2010, Says Gartner
    • Avnet, Infor Join iManifest EMEA Program
    • Rolling Thunder Rollout for Power7 Processors Next Year
    • YiPsters Open No Cost Education and Training Web Site
    • Hitachi Kicks Out Two 15K SAS Disks

    Content archive

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

    Recent Posts

    • How Committed Is Big Blue To The IBM Cloud?
    • Immutable Copies Are Only As Good As Your Validation
    • Guru: IBM i *USRPRF Security
    • ERP Transitions Loom for SAP on IBM i Customers
    • Inflation Pumps Up Global IT Spending, Supply Chain Deflates It
    • COMMON Set for First Annual Conference in Three Years
    • API Operations Management for Safe, Powerful, and High Performance APIs
    • What’s New in IBM i Services and Networking
    • Four Hundred Monitor, May 18
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 20

    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 © 2022 IT Jungle

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.