IBM announced the upcoming general availability of the IBM Spyre Accelerator, an AI accelerator enabling low-latency inferencing to support generative and agentic AI use cases, while prioritizing the security and resilience of core workloads.
Earlier this year, IBM announced the Spyre Accelerator would be available in IBM z17, LinuxONE 5, and Power11 systems. Spyre will be generally available on October 28 for IBM z17 and LinuxONE 5 systems, and in early December for Power11 servers.
IBM recognized the need for mainframes and servers to run AI models along with the most demanding enterprise workloads without compromising on throughput. To address this demand, clients need AI inferencing hardware that supports generative and agentic AI while maintaining the security and resilience of core data, transactions, and applications. The accelerator is also built to enable clients to keep mission-critical data on-prem to mitigate risk while addressing operational and energy efficiency, according to IBM.
The IBM Spyre Accelerator reflects the strength of IBM's research-to-product pipeline, combining breakthrough innovation from the IBM Research AI Hardware Center with enterprise-grade development from IBM Infrastructure.
The IBM Research prototype has evolved into an enterprise-grade product for use in IBM Z, LinuxONE and Power systems. The Spyre Accelerator is a commercial system-on-a-chip with 32 individual accelerator cores and 25.6 billion transistors. Produced using 5nm node technology, each Spyre is mounted on a 75-watt PCIe card, which makes it possible to cluster up to 48 cards in an IBM Z or LinuxONE system or 16 cards in an IBM Power system to scale AI capabilities.
"One of our key priorities has been advancing infrastructure to meet the demands of new and emerging AI workloads," said Barry Baker, COO, IBM Infrastructure and GM, IBM Systems. "With the Spyre Accelerator, we're extending the capabilities of our systems to support multi-model AI – including generative and agentic AI. This innovation positions clients to scale their AI-enabled mission-critical workloads with uncompromising security, resilience, and efficiency, while unlocking the value of their enterprise data."
For IBM clients, Spyre Accelerators offer fast, secured processing with on-prem AI acceleration. This marks a significant milestone, allowing businesses to leverage AI at scale while keeping data on IBM Z, LinuxONE and Power systems, the company said.
In mainframe systems, coupled with the Telum II processor for IBM Z and LinuxONE, Spyre offers enhanced security, low latency, and high transaction rate processing power.
Leveraging this advanced hardware and software stack, businesses can use Spyre to scale multiple AI models to power predictive use cases such as advanced fraud detection and retail automation.
On IBM Power-based servers, Spyre customers can leverage a catalog of AI services, enabling end-to-end AI for enterprise workflows. Clients can install the AI services from the catalog with just one click.
For more information about this news, visit www.ibm.com.