IBM Power server memory and I/O upgrades are more cost-effective

Recently, IBM upgraded some models of the power system product line, including upgrading memory and I/O to the starter model, and increasing the number of processing cores for high-end models.

The entry-level models for this upgrade include Power710 and 730, which were released in August 2010 with 2U architecture, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the two. Where Power710 supports a single POWER7 processor and 8 DDR3 memory slots, the upgraded Power710 can support one 16GB RAM, maximum memory capacity from 64GB to 128GB, and PCI x8 slots from 4 to 8. and can support a faster PCI 2.0 rate (20GB/S). The new Power710 does not upgrade the CPU and still uses the previous 4-core 3GHz, 6-core 3.7GHz or 8-core 3.55GHz Power7 processor.

IBM Power 710/730 Server

POWER730 uses the same chassis as the Power710, but with a dual-slot processor card, the upgraded Power730 also supports a single 16GB memory with the largest memory support of 256GB and four configuration options for the processor: 4 Core 3GHz, 4 nuclear 3.7GHz, 6 nuclear 3.7GHz and 8 nuclear 3.55GHz, chassis maximum support 6 2.5 inch hard drive.

The starter model for this upgrade also includes 4U Power720 and 740. The upgraded Power720 still supports 8 2.5-inch hard drives and 5 PCI 2.0 slots with 1 CPU slots to support only the POWER7 processors with a frequency of 3GHz, and users can select 4 cores, 6 cores, and 8 core versions. Of these 4 nuclear versions do not have 12x I/O loops to connect to remote Storage, but the 6 and 8 versions have this capability. The new Power720 also supports a single 16GB memory, which can support 256GB.

IBM Power 720/740

The Power740 has two CPU cards, supports two POWER7 processors, and has four different options: 4 cores 3.3GHz and 3.7GHz, 6 3.7GHz and 8 core 3.55GHz. Each CPU card has a 12x remote I/O slot that supports 256GB memory, one times higher than the previous Power740. The new Power740 has 5 PCI 2.0 x8 slots, an optional PCI extension module, and an additional 40 PCI 2.0 slots.

In addition to upgrades on memory and PCI slots, these four starter power systems also have a dedicated slot for connecting dual-port Gigabit Ethernet controllers.

IBM also upgraded two high-end power systems, including Power770 and 780. Prior to the Power770 used 6 cores 3.5GHz and 8 nuclear 3.1GHz Power7 processors, upgraded Power770 supported two processor frequencies upgraded to 3.72GHZ and 3.3GHz respectively. Supports single 16GB memory, maximum memory support to 4TB, each server node has 6 PCI 2.0 x8 slots.

IBM Power 770 Server

POWER780 is a special version of the four-node Power770, with a "dual boot" mode that allows half of the core to be shut down, remaining running at a higher frequency, and using all the 32GB DRAM L3 cache. For some workloads, such as database processing, doubling the L3 cache and a higher core frequency can improve server performance. Upgraded Power780 from dual slots to four slots, processor upgrades to 6 cores, so that the highest-end models can have 96 cores, the core frequency from the previous 3.86GHz to 3.92GHz, "dual-boot" mode when the core frequency upgrade to 4.14GHz. The new Power780 memory capacity also increased to 4TB.

Power780 does not have the 8 core POWER7 processor configured to avoid competing with the highest-end Power795. The Power795 is the IBM Power system product line's highest-end model, capable of scaling to 32 slots, 256 cores, 1024 threads and up to 8TB of memory support. This upgrade does not include Power795 and Power750, because IBM believes that these two models do not currently need to upgrade I/O and memory, Power750 support single 8GB memory, the highest support 512GB memory.

The upgraded power system will be officially released on October 21, and the current price of Power710, 720, 730 and 740 has been determined and the starting price will remain unchanged from the original model.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)