IBM has announced new POWER7 systems designed to manage the most demanding emerging applications, ranging from smart electrical grids to real-time analytics for financial markets. The new systems incorporate technologies for the specialized demands of new applications and services that rely on processing large numbers of concurrent transactions and data while analyzing that information in real time. In addition, the new systems enable clients to manage current applications and services at less cost with technology breakthroughs in virtualization, energy savings, more cost-efficient use of memory, and better price performance.
Launched with Linux, as well as AIX, and IBM i operating system support, the new POWER7 Systems further IBM's cross-platform strategy, enabling customers to choose the best platform for their needs.
IBM's new POWER7 systems, which build on the company's 12-point revenue share gains since 2004 in the $14 billion UNIX market, can manage millions of transactions in real time and analyze the associated volumes of data typical of emerging applications. For example, a smart electrical grid requires per-the-minute data to deliver electricity where it is needed most, in real time, while helping customers monitor their energy consumption in real time to avoid or reduce usage during the most expensive peaks each day.
The new systems and management software include the IBM Power 780, a new category of scalable, high-end servers, featuring an advanced modular design with up to 64 POWER7 "cores," or CPUs, and the new TurboCore workload optimizing mode. TurboCore can deliver up to two times the performance per core of POWER6 processor-based systems, providing strong ROI for applications with high per-core performance requirements, such as managing and analyzing transactions from a smart electrical grid.
The IBM Power 770 is a modular enterprise system with up to 64 POWER7 cores, featuring higher performance per core than POWER6 processors and using up to 70% less energy for the same number of cores as the IBM Power 570. IBM Power 755, a high-performance computing cluster node with 32 POWER7 cores, is Energy Star-qualified for energy efficiency, and optimized for the most challenging analytic workloads. Additionally, the IBM Power 750 Express, an Energy Star-qualified business server for mid-market clients, offers four times the processing capacity of its predecessor, the IBM Power 550 Express, in the same energy envelope and 10 times the performance of a comparable HP Integrity rx6600. The Power 750 is three times more energy efficient than the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440, Sun's "Coolthreads" server. More detailed information on how POWER7 stacks up against other alternatives can be found here.
IBM Systems Director Express, Standard and Enterprise Editions offer new and simplified packaging of management software for the new systems and include the advanced virtualization management capabilities of VMControl. VMControl allows a "systems pool" of multiple Power servers to be managed as one entity, which can enable reductions in management cost and complexity.
The Power 750 Express and 755 are planned volume ship date is February 19 and the Power 770 and 780 planned volume availability is March 16. The IBM Systems Director Editions, supporting both POWER7 and POWER6 models, planned availability is March 5.
For more information about Power Systems, go here.