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IBM Power Systems

Line of computer servers from IBM

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

IBM Power Systems is a family of server computers from IBM that are based on its Power processors. It was created in 2008 as a merger of the System p and System i product lines.

01History

IBM had two distinct POWER- and PowerPC-based hardware lines since the early 1990s:

After the introduction of the POWER4 processor in 2001, there was little difference between both the "p" and the "i" hardware; the only differences were in the software and services offerings. With the introduction of the POWER5 processor in 2004, even the product numbering was synchronized. The System i5 570 was virtually identical to the System p5 570.

In April 2008, IBM officially merged the two lines of servers and workstations under the same name, Power, and later Power Systems, with identical hardware and a choice of operating systems, software, and service contracts, based formerly on a POWER6 architecture. The PowerPC line was discontinued.

With Release 8 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, IBM has completed transition of POWER8 and POWER9 servers to little-endian mode for Linux. AIX and IBM i continue to run in big-endian mode.

2018 Sierra supercomputer, based on Power System nodes
2018 Sierra supercomputer, based on Power System nodes

02Systems

IBM Power Systems models:

  • 2008/2009
    • BladeCenter JS12 Express
    • BladeCenter JS22 Express
    • BladeCenter JS23 Express
    • BladeCenter JS43 Express
    • Power 520 Express
    • Power 550 Express
    • Power 560 Express
    • Power 570
    • Power 575
    • Power 595
  • 2010
    • BladeCenter PS700 Express
    • BladeCenter PS701 Express
    • BladeCenter PS702 Express
    • Power 710/730 Express (8231-E2B) (1~2 4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)
    • Power 720 Express (8202-E4B) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPU)
    • Power 740 Express (8205-E6B) (1~2 4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)
    • Power 750 Express (8233-E8B) (1~4 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)
    • Power 755 (8236-E8C) (4 8-core POWER7 CPUs) , for high-performance computing (HPC)
    • Power 770
    • Power 780
    • Power 795
  • 2011
    • Power 710 Express (8231-E1C) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPU)
    • Power 720 Express (8202-E4C) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPU)
    • Power 730 Express (8231-E2C) (2 4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)
    • Power 740 Express (8205-E6C) (1~2 4, 6 or 8-core POWER7 CPUs)
    • Power 775 , also known as PERCS
  • 2012
    • Flex System p260
    • Flex System p460
    • Flex System p24L (Linux only)
  • 2013
    • Power 710 Express (8231-E1D) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7+ CPU)
    • Power 720 Express (8202-E4D) (4, 6 or 8-core POWER7+ CPU)
    • Power 730 Express (8231-E2D) (2 6 or 8-core POWER7+ CPUs)
    • Power 740 Express (8205-E6D) (1~2 6 or 8-core POWER7+ CPUs)
    • Power 750 Express (8408-E8D) (1~4 8-core POWER7+ DCMs)
    • Power 760 (9109-RMD) (1~4 12-core POWER7+ DCMs)
  • 2014
    • Power Systems S821LC and S821LC
    • Power Systems S822 and S822L
    • Power Systems S814
    • Power Systems S824 and S824L
    • Power Systems E870
    • Power Systems E880
  • 2015
    • Power Systems E850
    • Power Systems S812L and S812LC
    • Power Systems S822LC
  • 2017
    • Power Systems AC922
    • Power Systems LC922
    • Power Systems IC922
    • Power Systems L922
    • Power Systems S914
    • Power Systems S922
    • Power Systems S924
    • Power Systems H922
    • Power Systems H924
    • Power Systems E950
    • Power Systems E980
  • 2021
    • Power E1080
  • 2022
    • Power S1014
    • Power S1022s
    • Power S1022
    • Power S1024
  • 2022
    • Power E1050
  • 2024
    • Power S1012
  • 2025
    • Power S1122
    • Power L1122
    • Power S1124
    • Power L1124
    • Power E1150
    • Power E1180
  • 2026
    • Power S1112

IBM PowerVM provides the virtualisation solution for Power Systems servers.

POWER8-based IBM Power Systems E870 can be configured with up to 80 processor cores and 8 TB of memory.
POWER8-based IBM Power Systems E870 can be configured with up to 80 processor cores and 8 TB of memory.
Watch videos about IBM Power SystemsExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article IBM Power Systems, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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