IBM Pulls The Plug On Old Peripherals

December 8, 2014 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Peripherals change with blazing speed in the IT market, and the Power Systems line, as a collection of various components, is no different from other systems out there. IBM can’t keep all components in supply forever, and it has to move to newer components to stay competitive. And thus a bunch of devices for the Power Systems line are being sunsetted in favor of newer kit.

In announcement letter 914-229, IBM is replacing its first generation of 1.8-inch, 387 GB SSDs with the second generation. Both are based on so-called enterprise multi-level cell (eMLC) flash technology, and IBM has never been particularly clear about what the differences are between the first and second generation eMLC cards, but after February 27, 2015, you won’t be able to get the older ones.

Also on February 27, IBM will stop selling various PCI-Express cryptographic coprocessors that are used in conjunction with Power Systems machines. The cards, sold under the product number 4765-001 and sold as features #4807, #4808, #4809, and these will be replaced by features #EJ27, #EJ28, and #EJ29 that are functionally equivalent and yet are supported on the Power8 systems. Conversions between the older feature #4808 and #4809 adapters will also be discontinued.

IBM is also mothballing the feature #1762 four-port, 10 Gb/sec EN4054 Ethernet adapter for its Flex System machines and replacing it with an eight-power CN4058 converged adapter running at 10 Gb/sec. These adapters are all made by Lenovo Group now, and the converged bit means that the adapter supports the Fibre Channel storage protocol running atop Ethernet.