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Product Updates In November 2008, IBM launched ‘Power Systems’ as the convergence of System p and i onto a common platform. This announcement was seen as one of the most significant in the history of IBM’s midrange platform as it has evolved into a new set of standards for efficiency and resiliency in business processing Today, IBM are introducing a new processor technology and enhancements in disk storage along with a further strengthening of their move to PCI-e “SmartIOA” IOP-less technology. If you require any further information, please speak to one of our Power i specialists would be delighted to assist. New POWER Models IBM has announced Power6+ processor based versions of the Power 520 and Power 550 Express offerings. In summary, the model range is as follows:
All new Power6+ models require IBM i Operating System 6.1. As a result, the 520 and 550 will be available with both the Power6 and Power6+ processor options at this time to provide support for V5R4 on Power6. Please note that IBM will begin the phase out Power6 over the coming year. Upgrades are available from Power5 and Power6 to the new Power6+ models although upgrading from Power6 will result in a change of serial number. However, please be aware there is no upgrade into or out of the Power 520 1-way, no upgrade into the Power 520 4-way and no upgrade out of any Power 520 to Power 550 or above. Blade Centre and Power Blade options Following IBM’s announcement last year of support for the IBM i 6.1 Operating System running on Blade technology, IBM are extending support for this onto two new Blades, the JS23 and JS43. This approach continues to offer an alternative to the more traditional desk side or rack mount server options. Both the new Power blades continue to run the Power6 processor but clock speeds increase on both to 4.2GHz. In terms of performance these continue to be positioned around the 2-way Power6 520 model outlined above. Two Blade Centre chassis options are unchanged; the ‘S’, which accommodates up to 4 blades and 12 disk bays within the chassis, and the ‘H’, which has capacity for up to 14 blades, with disk provided via a separate storage expansion drawer. For those environments where the core business application is running on a standalone iSeries / System i then this may not be of interest or warrant the added complexity. However, having the blade configuration as an option provides a viable alternative for those situations where there is already an investment made in blade technology or who have a number of servers that might be physically consolidated into a smaller rack print, even if full logical virtualisation is not desired or achievable. For example, where a business has one or two IBM i Operating System applications plus Open Systems and Microsoft Windows, since IBM i, AIX and LINUX may all run on Power Blades while Intel blades running Windows may cohabit in the same chassis as Power blades, with some degree of shared storage and other infrastructure. Solid State Disk Enhancements IBM has released support on Power6 for Solid State Drives (SSD). These disks will install in the same way as conventional SCSI/SAS disks but provide much higher data retrieval speeds and have a greater utilisation threshold, showing no performance impact until they reach close to 100% capacity. Solid state technology is being positioned for those clients whose workloads include a high number of random read requests or who require a high number of disk arms to provide data retrieval performance but where overall disk utilisation is low. Using the new “IBM i Load Balancer” tool, ‘Hot’ data which is required frequently is automatically moved onto the solid state drives whilst ‘Cold’, rarely used or archive data remains on conventional hard disk. This can significantly reduce the number of disk arms required (IBM lab testing suggests by up to 75%) resulting in cost savings in energy, maintenance and footprint. Withdrawals Summary Withdrawal of SCSI disk In the move to Power6, IBM demonstrated a move to SAS disk rather than SCSI by only allowing support for SAS disks in the system units. This announcement takes this one step further by setting a withdrawal date for SCSI disk and most SCSI disk controllers of the end of August 2009. To ensure that there is no loss of functionality as a result of moving to SAS, IBM has also announced new high-performance SAS disk controllers – a notable omission up until now. Two new SAS disk expansion units supported on Power5, Power6 and Power6+ systems have been announced in place of the existing #5094 and #5294 expansion towers which will be withdrawn at the end of May and the #0595 SCSI disk expansion which will also be withdrawn at the end of August. Withdrawal of Power5 Upgrades As a phased withdrawal from August to November 2009, IBM will withdraw processor upgrades within Power5 and Power5+ 515, 520, 525 and 550 models. Upgrades from these models (excluding the 515 and Express/Value 520) will continue to be available to Power6 and Power6+. IBM are also withdrawing Power5 specific features such as main storage and certain I/O cards. Withdrawal of Twinax Effective 27th November 2009 will be the withdrawal of Twinax from marketing. Although Twinax has been prohibited for use as a console for some time, there will no longer be a Twinax adapter for other functions such as attaching printers. Users still running Twinax attached printers and considering Power6 should look at migrating to LAN attached printing. IBM Planning StatementsIBM have released the statement of direction that on Power7 servers, HSL attached expansion frames will no longer be supported. Any I/O expansion must be attached via 12X loops. The main impact as a result of this is that Power7 servers will not support IOP’s. Any IOP controlled I/O currently in use will have to be migrated to ‘SmartIOA’ IOP-less technology. Apex is happy to assist with any forward planning required to ensure that this becomes a smooth transition. New enhancement availability The dates below are IBM’s current target dates for general availability and as such are subject to change.
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