IBM POWER9:

Enterprise servers
Accelerate your enterprise with a future-forward
server infrastructure

Chris Eaton (ceaton@ca.ibm.com)

Ross Perry (ross.perry@ibm.com)
 IT Industry Imperatives

Increase Agility Increase Availability Eliminate Data Increase Server

Breaches Utilization
IT needs to deliver Downtime is money. Likelihood of a Delivering cloud-like
agility to LOBs while In 2018, 33% of company being agility can improve
maintaining security, enterprises say hourly breached in next 24 server utilization and
integrity, and downtime cost them months = 28%, costing reduce software and
availability. $1M to $5M+. $3.6M per breach hardware costs.
 IBM Power System E980
Gain the extraordinary scalability, security,
performance and availability for your data centers
with cloud deployments for your most demanding
AIX®, IBM i and Linux applications. The flexibility of
this large enterprise server helps develop a large
cloud infrastructure with proven reliability.

Meet the IBM Power Systems

enterprise servers for accelerating
your cloud infrastructure IBM Power System E950
Benefit from blazing performance, extreme agility
and industry leading reliability in a compact
4-socket system. It is an ideal platform for growing
medium-size businesses and as a departmental
server or data center building
block for large enterprises.
Industry experts react to “You’ve convinced me. I’ll be telling my clients they
should upgrade to these new Power servers.”
IBM’s latest enterprise – Dan Bowers, Gartner
systems announcement

“The reliability of Power is just unmatched and the

cost savings to migrate – very compelling story.”
– Pat Moorhead, Moor Insights

“Great announcement. This sounds like an excellent

and unmatched product.”
– Fuad Abozovic, Fudzilla
80% of
Fortune 100
leverage IBM
Power Systems

5
 Industry leaders trust
Power Systems

10 / 10 8 / 10 9 / 10 8 / 10
Top Banking Top Healthcare Top Insurance Top
Companies Companies Companies Retailers
6
 Cloud Infrastructure – Trusted!

Simplified multicloud Proven reliability Built-in security from Scalable, affordable

end-to-end performance
With IBM POWER9, Today’s always-on IBM Power Systems IBM POWER9 drives
you can dynamically world requires resilient, have security built in at the world’s fastest
scale compute and mission-critical servers all layers in the stack – supercomputers and is
memory on demand that deliver continuous processor, systems, ready to accelerate
and build a cloud operations. IBM firmware, OS and your enterprise. Gains
designed for the most servers ranked the Hypervisor. Your data are significant moving
data intensive most reliable for the is protected in motion from x86 or older
workloads. 10th straight year. and at rest. Power servers.
Simplified
Multicloud
“Pay As You Grow” IT for Mission
Critical Workloads
Dynamically scale compute and memory on demand
based on business needs

Designed for Agility

Effortlessly move workloads across generations of
Power Systems without disruption

Seamless Multicloud Compatibility

Open integration with leading multicloud managers
and easily import/export VMs between Power based
private and public clouds
Enterprise Cloud Ready: IBM Cloud Private

• Secure, enterprise-grade services and operations

• Large and growing ecosystem of application runtimes,
software, data and other value-added services
PRIVATE
• Supports Power, IBM Z, x86 heterogeneous clusters

• Faster insights for cognitive applications

on • Better performance at lower cost
• Seamless modernization for AIX and IBM i apps
• Easiest heterogeneous cloud to install and operate

Enterprise grade. Open by design. Accelerated by Power.

Modernization to Private Cloud
with IBM Cloud Private and Power Systems

Simplifies Cloud Application Deployment

Over 50% faster to deploy applications

versus traditional infrastructure 1
And is 27% less expensive than the
public cloud to run a typical workload mix 2
With 88% more containers
per core supported on
Power versus x86 3
Proven Reliable
Industry Leading Reliability
IBM Power Systems ranked the most
reliable for the 10th straight year1

Investment Protection
Committed 10+ year roadmap for
both IBM i and AIX

Industry Leadership in Enterprise Servers

IBM Power Systems was #1 in combined 8
socket large system, standard rack optimized
and tower servers during 2017 with an
aggregate revenue share of 34.4% 2
 Ranked Number 1 in
every major reliability
category by ITIC

“IBM POWER8-based processor systems and

the latest POWER9 servers provide several key
feature/function advantages that advance
reliability and enable customers to lower Total
Cost of Ownership (TCO) and achieve near- 12
immediate ROI.”
Delivered with
Security
End-to-End Security
Security built-in at all layers:
processor, firmware, OS, hypervisor

Secured Cloud
PowerVM is the only hypervisor amongst its
major competitors with no reported vulnerabilities

Security In Motion
Protect data in motion with secured Live
Partition Mobility (LPM)
Scales
Performance
Affordably
POWER9 vs x86 Xeon SP
• 2x performance per core
• 1.8x memory bandwidth per socket

POWER9 vs. POWER8

• 2x – 4x memory capacity
• 40-50% more performance

Lower TCO
• Save 50% in 3-5 years moving
from POWER7 to POWER9
Performance – E850 vs. E950

Sockets 2 or 4 sockets 2, 3 or 4 sockets More flexible core options and

4x more memory for data
Core Counts 3 options 4 options intensive workloads

Max Memory 4TB 16TB

Memory Bandwidth 768 GB/sec 920 GB/sec Move data significantly

faster through the
IO Bandwidth 315 GB/sec 620 GB/sec system

PCIe Gen 4 Sockets 10 PCIe Gen 4 slots

NVMe Bays 4 NVMe Bays

Performance – E760 vs. E950

Sockets 1 or 4 sockets 2, 3 or 4 sockets Faster and more powerful

cores to deliver faster insights
Core Counts 12, 24, 36, 48 32, 40, 44, 48

Max Memory 2TB 16TB

307
Memory Bandwidth GB/sec 920 GB/sec Move data significantly
faster through the
74 system
IO Bandwidth GB/sec 620 GB/sec

PCIe Gen 4 Sockets 10 PCIe Gen 4 slots

NVMe Bays 4 NVMe Bays

Performance – E880C vs. E980

Sockets 4, 8, 12, 16 4, 8, 12, 16

Core Counts Up to 192 Up to 192 2x more memory

Max Memory 32TB 64TB

Move data significantly
IO Bandwidth 315 GB/sec 630 GB/sec faster through the system

CEC Drawer Fabric 25.6 GB/sec 103 GB/sec

PCIe Gen 4 Sockets 8 PCIe Gen 4 slots / drawer

NVMe Bays 4 per drawer

Performance – E780 vs. E980
Sockets 4, 8, 12, 16 4, 8, 12, 16 50% more cores with
16x more memory at more
Core Counts Up to 128 Up to 192 than 3x the bandwidth

Max Memory 4TB 64TB

Memory Bandwidth 272 GB/sec 920 GB/sec per drawer

114 Move data significantly
IO Bandwidth GB/sec 630 GB/sec faster through the system

13
CEC Drawer Fabric GB/sec 103 GB/sec

PCIe Gen 4 Sockets 8 PCIe Gen 4 slots / drawer

NVMe Bays 4 per drawer

INFRASTRUCTURE

FOR ENTERPRISE

PRIVATE CLOUDS
POWER9 E950

Improved economics Increased efficiency Enhanced resiliency Rapid adjustment to

of application and lower operations and serviceability changing demands
delivery costs
4-socket 4U system Increased bandwidth Hot plug, redundant Built-in PowerVM
power supplies and
Up to 48 cores Consolidation for many cooling all standard Capacity on Demand
applications onto one
Up to 16TB memory system Concurrent I/O maint. Cloud management
console
Blind swap PCIe and
disks
POWER9 E980

Massive throughput, Consolidation of Infrastructure Rapid service

performance and underutilized servers resilience delivery and
scalability transition
Modular high-end Increased bandwidth Hot plug, redundant Built-in PowerVM
system up to 192 cores power supplies and
Consolidation for many cooling all standard Capacity on Demand
Up to 64TB memory applications onto one
system Concurrent I/O maint. Non-disruptive
1 to 4 nodes per upgrade from E870,
system Share resources in Blind swap PCIe and E870C, E880, E880C
Power enterprise pools disks
Where Mission Critical and E950 E980
Cloud come together

4U, 2, 3 or 4 sockets Up to four 5U CEC

drawers + 2U Control
Unit
Up to 48 processor Up to 192 processor
cores cores
12, 11, 10 or 8 cores 12, 11, 10 or 8 cores
per socket per socket
Up to 16TB total Up to 64TB total
memory memory
4TB per processor 16TB per drawer
 IBM Power Systems

Co-optimized Industry-leading Open Cloud

software and accelerators and ecosystem deployment
hardware technologies options
 Backup

25
 Key generational enhancements POWER7 to POWER9 (midrange)
Impact (POWER7 to Impact (POWER8 to
Features Power 760 E850C E950
POWER9) POWER9)
 Faster and more  More efficient processor
Processor POWER7 POWER8 (DCM) POWER9 (SCM)
powerful communication
Sockets 1 to 4 2 to 4 2 to 4
Cores 12 or 24 or 36 or 48 32 or 40 or 48 32 or 40 or 44 or 48  Higher minimum cores  More Processor Options
Maximum Memory 2TB 4 TB 16 TB  8X Maximum Memory  4X Maximum Memory
DIMM Type/DIMM slots Up to 64 Industry Up to 128 Industry Standard  Faster and More  More Memory Capacity
Up to 32 CDIMMs
count Standard DIMMs DIMMs memory and Flexibility
 20% more Memory
Memory Bandwidth 307 GB/sec 768 GB/sec 920 GB/sec  3X Memory Bandwidth
Bandwidth
IO Expansion Slots Yes Yes Yes
PCIe slots 6x PCIe Gen2 11x PCIe Gen3 10x PCIe Gen4, 1x PCI Gen3  More slots and Faster  PCIe Gen4
 Future enablement for  Future enablement for
Acceleration Ports No Yes (CAPI 1.0) Yes (CAPI 2.0 + OpenCAPI)
accelerators accelerators
PCIe Hot Plug Support Yes Yes Yes + Blindswap  Better Serviceability  Better Serviceability
IO bandwidth 74 GB/sec 315 GB/sec 630 GB/sec  >8X IO bandwidth  2X IO bandwidth
Ethernet ports Max 40Gbs Max 100 Gbs Max 100 Gbs  Faster offerings
12 (8x 2.5” SAS bays + 12 (8x 2.5” SAS bays +  More SAS bays and  Faster and more
Internal Storage Bays 6x 2.5” SAS bays
4x 1.8” SSD bays) 4x NVMe bays) more options compact storage
Optional and Concurrent  Improved cost and  Improved cost and
Internal Storage Controllers Integrated Integrated
Maintainable seviceability seviceability
• Enhanced DC-DC Reg  More reliable and
Design  More reliable and serviceable power.
RAS
• Enhanced Fan Concurrent serviceable power  More serviceable
Maintainance P8 to P9 cooling
 Key generational enhancements POWER7 to POWER9 (high-end)
Features Power 780 Power E880C Power E980 Impact (POWER7 to POWER9) Impact (POWER8 to POWER9)
Processor POWER7+ POWER8 POWER9  Faster response time and  Faster response time and
increased system scalability increased system scalability
Sockets 4, 8, 12, 16 4, 8, 12, 16 4, 8, 12, 16
Cores Up to 128 cores Up to 192 cores Up to 192 cores  Up to 50% more cores
 16X increase in memory
 Enhance the performance of
capacity significantly improves
Maximum Memory 4TB 32TB 64TB large-scale in-memory DB
performance of large-scale in-
applications
memory DB applications
 238% increase in memory
Memory Bandwidth 272 GB/sec / drawer 920 GB/sec / drawer 920 GB/sec / drawer bandwidth provides improved
application performance
I/O Drawer Expansion Yes Yes Yes
PCIe slots 6 PCIe GEN2 slots / drawer 8 PCIe GEN3 slots / drawer 8 PCIe GEN4 slots / drawer
IO bandwidth 144 GB/sec 315 GB/sec 630 GB/sec  Over 4X I/O bandwidth  2X I/O bandwidth

 Nearly 8X higher internode

 4X higher internode bandwidth
bandwidth via 25Gb/s SMP
via 25Gb/s SMP links flattens
CEC Drawer fabric 13.2 GB/s 25.6GB/s 103.12GB/s links which flatten SMP
SMP topology to reduce latency
topology to reduce latency &
& increase throughput
increase throughput
Acceleration Ports No Yes (CAPI 1.0) Yes (CAPI 2.0 + OpenCAPI)  Future enablement for  Future enablement for
accelerators accelerators
PCIe Hot Plug Support Yes Yes Yes
Integrated Ethernet, DASD
USB adapters supported in  Flexibility for additional device
 Flexibility for additional device
Integrated I/O PCIe adapter slots in a Integrated USB 3.0 ports attachment
Controller, USB attachment
drawer
None - all bootable storage is  Enable clients to boot a system
Internal Storage Bays 6 DASD Bays / drawer
external to the CEC drawers
4 NVMe Bays / drawer  Faster bootable storage option (locally) without the need for an
external I/O drawer
• Redundant Flexible Service  Provide the highest level of  Provide the highest level of
Processors single-system reliability single-system reliability
• Guided FSP & SMP Cable available within the Power available within the Power
• Redundant Flexible
• Redundant Flexible installation Systems portfolio, enhance Systems portfolio, enhance
Service Processors
RAS Service Processors • Dynamic de-allocation of a SMP business resilience & the business resilience & the
• Redundant Clocks
• Redundant Clocks cable & 1/2 bandwidth mode availability of clients’ mission- availability of clients’ mission-
• SMP cable concurrent repair critical applications to keep IT critical applications to keep IT
• Distributed Redundant Clocks, no teams focused on deployment teams focused on deployment