Wait, did you hear that? That rumbling within the distance? Feels like... a 16-socket IBM Power9 field shuffling this fashion • The Register

IBM this week launched a 16-socket Power9 server monster.

The E980 is essentially the most highly effective and scalable server within the IBM Energy Programs portfolio. It's a follow-on to the E880 and E880C servers, and is vastly extra highly effective. There are mannequin upgrades from IBM Power9-based E870, E870C, E880, and E880C techniques.

In response to an IBM Purple Guide, an E980 system consists of a 2U System Management Unit (SCU) with as much as 4 5U system nodes.

Every system node accommodates 4 single-chip modules (SCMs) – these sport an IBM Power9 processor with 8, 10, 11 or 12 cores, and simultaneous multithreading executing as much as eight threads per core, at clock frequencies of three.55 to 4GHz. That could be a most of 48 cores per system node. An E980 server can have 4, 8, 12 or 16 sockets, or as much as 192 cores, that means a socket equates to an SCM.

Every system node has 32 Customized DIMM (CDIMM) slots, and might assist as much as 16TB of DDR4 reminiscence. Thus a four-node server can have as much as 64TB of reminiscence, with bandwidth of 920GB/sec/drawer. The E8880C supported 32TB of reminiscence.

The processor has EnergyScale know-how with variable processor frequency modes that present a big efficiency increase past the static nominal frequency.

E980 system node exploded

The server has an built-in IO system with hot-pluggable PCIe gen-Four interfaces. The truth is, there are as much as 32 PCIe gen-Four x16 slots within the system nodes. Initially, there are as much as 48 PCIe gen-Three slots with 4 growth drawers and this can improve to 192 slots with the assist of 16 I/O drawers. It makes use of 12Gbit/s SAS EXP12SX and ESP24SX exterior disk growth drawers. It might probably take as much as 4,000 or extra instantly connected SAS disks or solid-state drives (SSDs).

The E980 server can assist as much as 4 800GB hot-pluggable mainstream NVMe SSDs in every system node for boot functions. There may be as much as 1,000 VMs (LPARs) per system.

Prospects can improve processing sources. Both through CUoD (Capability Improve on Demand) to completely activate further processors and reminiscence, or through Elastic CoD for a brief improve. Supported working techniques embody Linux and AIX.

Dell has a PowerEdge R940xa server utilizing Intel Xeon SPs with as much as 28 cores per processor, 112 cores max in a four-socket system. HPE's ProLiant DL580 Gen10 server can be a four-socket Intel Xeon SP field.

The E980 has as much as 192 cores. And IBM claims its Energy E980 system bandwidth can ship greater than twice the efficiency per core of its rivals, resembling Dell and HPE, enabling purposes to run sooner and be extra responsive. Utilizing IBM's numbers, lets say a four-node E980 is equal to three.Four totally configured HPE DL580 or Dell R940xa machines.

Massive Blue additionally introduced this week an E950: a four-socket, 4U server containing as much as 4 12-core Power9 processors, and 16TB of reminiscence. That is roughly equal to a single E980 system node.

At preliminary availability in September 2018, as much as two system nodes are supported. In November, as much as 4 system nodes will likely be supported. And the worth? If it's a must to ask, chances are you'll not be capable to afford it. ®

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