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
The IBM System p is a high-end line of RISC (Power)/UNIX-based servers. It was the successor of the RS/6000 line, and predecessor of the IBM Power Systems server series.
History
The previous RS/6000 line was originally a line of workstations and ...
and
System i product lines.
History
IBM had two distinct POWER- and PowerPC-based hardware lines since the early 1990s:
* Servers running processors based on the
IBM PowerPC-AS architecture in the
AS/400 family (later known as iSeries, then System i) running OS/400 (later known as i5/OS, and now
IBM i
IBM i (the ''i'' standing for ''integrated'') is an operating system developed by IBM for IBM Power Systems. It was originally released in 1988 as OS/400, as the sole operating system of the IBM AS/400 line of systems. It was renamed to i5/OS i ...
)
* Servers and workstations using POWER and
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple– IBM ...
processors in the
RS/6000
The RISC System/6000 (RS/6000) is a family of RISC-based Unix servers, workstations and supercomputers made by IBM in the 1990s. The RS/6000 family replaced the IBM RT PC computer platform in February 1990 and was the first computer line to s ...
family (later known as
pSeries
The IBM System p is a high-end line of RISC ( Power)/UNIX-based servers. It was the successor of the RS/6000 line, and predecessor of the IBM Power Systems server series.
History
The previous RS/6000 line was originally a line of workstations ...
, then
System p
The IBM System p is a high-end line of RISC (Power)/UNIX-based servers. It was the successor of the RS/6000 line, and predecessor of the IBM Power Systems server series.
History
The previous RS/6000 line was originally a line of workstations and ...
), running
IBM AIX
AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive, pronounced , "ay-eye-ex") is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms.
Background
Originally released for the IBM RT PC RISC w ...
and
Linux on Power.
After the introduction of the
POWER4
The POWER4 is a microprocessor developed by International Business Machines (IBM) that implemented the 64-bit PowerPC and PowerPC AS instruction set architectures. Released in 2001, the POWER4 succeeded the POWER3 and RS64 microprocessors, ena ...
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
The POWER6 is a microprocessor developed by IBM that implemented the Power ISA v.2.03. When it became available in systems in 2007, it succeeded the POWER5+ as IBM's flagship Power microprocessor. It is claimed to be part of the eCLipz projec ...
architecture. PowerPC line was discontinued.
With Release 8 of
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a Commercial software, commercial Open-source software, open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commerce, commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-6 ...
, 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.
Systems
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
High-performance computing (HPC) uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems.
Overview
HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into a multi ...
(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
PERCS (Productive, Easy-to-use, Reliable Computing System) is IBM's answer to DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) initiative. The program resulted in commercial development and deployment of the Power 775, a supercomputer design ...
* 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 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
IBM
PowerVM provides the virtualisation solution for Power Systems servers.
See also
*
IBM BladeCenter
The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's blade server architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System in 2012. The x86 division was later sold to Lenovo in 2014.
History
Introduced in 2002, based on engineering work started in 1999, the IBM eSer ...
*
PureSystems
References
External links
Power Systems (Power Systems for UNIX, and Linux Clients) – IBM.comIBM Power Systems Redbooks*
ttp://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/idevelop/2008/04/hardware-os-get.html Hardware, OS Get New Names--And That's a Good Thing – IBM Systems Magazine.comIBM IT Infrastructure web pageIBM Systems Power Systems Magazine
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IBM server computers
AS/400
Computer-related introductions in 2008