IBM Power11 is expected to beat x86 in efficiency
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| DDIMM memory modules when installed in a Power11 system |
IBM has introduced the Power11 server series , which features six new processors. While competitors offer 192 CPU cores and develop even larger processors, IBM is focusing on a different concept with relatively few CPU cores, with the Power11 offering a maximum of 30. A special feature is 8-way SMT (Simultaneous Multithreading), which creates 240 threads.
Not all CPU cores are always visible to the operating system. In IBM E1180 servers, one core per CPU is reserved as a hot spare. If another CPU core fails, the firmware automatically replaces it with that core, allowing the system to continue running without interruption and without any loss of performance.
The CPUs have a performance mode and an efficiency mode, which, according to IBM, is 28 percent more efficient in direct comparison. Compared to Power10, the concept of resource groups has been added, in which the firmware is designed to achieve better utilization through intelligent load balancing. According to IBM, Power11 achieves twice the performance per watt of x86 CPUs.
Maintenance during operation
As with the previous generation, the systems' availability is expected to be 99.9999 percent. In addition to additional CPU cores, special DDIMM memory modules with large heat sinks, and ECC error correction, hot-swap maintenance is also possible. Parts of a cluster and even components of individual nodes can be replaced without shutting down the system.
The largest system, called the E1180, consists of four servers (nodes) in 4U chassis, each with four processors, each with 10, 12, or 16 cores, for a total of 64 cores per node and 256 per E1180 cluster. Excluding hot spares, 240 cores and 1,920 threads are available. 64 DDIMM slots per node provide space for up to 16 TB of DDR5 memory.
The smaller E1150 series doesn't offer clustering capabilities, but it supports up to 30 cores and 240 threads per CPU socket. It also offers 64 memory slots for up to 16 TB.
Dual-socket server with and without Unix
The smaller S1124 and S1122 systems have two CPU sockets for up to 60 cores and 480 threads and 32 DDIMM slots for up to 8 TB of RAM. They differ in chassis size: the S1124 has four rack units (4U) and 24 U.2 slots on the front, while the S1122 is a 2U system with 12 slots.
The two systems L1124 and L1122 are cheaper variants of the S series, on which the AIX Unix developed by IBM does not run; instead, the servers are operated with Linux.
AI on the CPU and via accelerator
The servers are available with IBM's inference accelerator Spyre, which offers 300 TOPS FP-16 performance and 128 GB LPDDR5. In addition, the CPUs themselves are said to be capable of AI acceleration, but IBM is keeping quiet about the details.
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