IBM Power Systems
| Company type | Product line |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer servers |
| Predecessor | System p, System i |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Armonk , United States |
| Products | Server computers utilizing IBM Power CPUs |
| Parent | IBM |
IBM Power Systems represents a series of server computers developed by IBM that utilize the company's proprietary Power CPUs. Introduced in 2008, this product line combined the former System p and System i families into a unified offering.
History
Throughout the early 1990s, IBM operated two separate server categories based on POWER and PowerPC technology:
- The AS/400 line (later rebranded as iSeries and then System i), powered by IBM PowerPC-AS processors and running OS/400 (currently known as IBM i)
- The RS/6000 series (which evolved into pSeries and later System p), consisting of servers and workstations using POWER and PowerPC chips, supporting IBM AIX and Linux on Power
Following the debut of the POWER4 processor in 2001, distinctions between the "p" and "i" product lines diminished significantly, with their primary differences residing in software platforms and service offerings. By the release of POWER5 in 2004, naming conventions aligned closely; for instance, the System i5 570 was almost identical to the System p5 570.
In April 2008, IBM consolidated these product families under a single Power brand—subsequently known as Power Systems—providing standardized hardware capable of running multiple operating systems with varied service agreements. This consolidation was initially based on the POWER6 architecture. Concurrently, IBM discontinued its PowerPC-based server line.
With the rollout of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release 8, IBM shifted its POWER8 and POWER9 servers to operate in little-endian mode for Linux workloads, while maintaining big-endian mode for AIX and IBM i environments.
Systems
The following outlines key IBM Power Systems models by release year:
- 2008/2009
- BladeCenter JS12, JS22, JS23, JS43 Express
- Power 520, 550, 560 Express
- Power 570, 575, 595
- 2010
- BladeCenter PS700, PS701, PS702 Express
- Power 710/730 Express (8231-E2B) featuring one or two POWER7 CPUs with 4, 6, or 8 cores
- Power 720 Express (8202-E4B) equipped with a single POWER7 CPU available in 4, 6, or 8 cores
- Power 740 Express (8205-E6B) supporting one or two POWER7 CPUs with core counts of 4, 6, or 8
- Power 750 Express (8233-E8B) offering one to four POWER7 CPUs with either six or eight cores each
- Power 755 (8236-E8C) designed for high-performance computing with four eight-core POWER7 processors
- Power 770, 780, and 795 models
- 2011
- Power 710 Express (8231-E1C) with a single POWER7 CPU available in configurations of 4, 6, or 8 cores
- Power 720 Express (8202-E4C) featuring one POWER7 CPU with options for core counts of 4, 6, or 8
- Power 730 Express (8231-E2C) equipped with two POWER7 CPUs each offering either four, six, or eight cores
- Power 740 Express (8205-E6C) supporting one or two POWER7 CPUs with core options of four to eight cores
- Power 775 (also recognized as PERCS)
- 2012
- Flex System p260 and p460 models along with p24L variant tailored exclusively for Linux
- 2013
- Power 710 Express (8231-E1D) incorporating POWER7+ CPUs available in configurations of four to eight cores
- Power 720 Express (8202-E4D) featuring POWER7+ processors with core options from four to eight
- Power 730 Express (8231-E2D) equipped with two POWER7+ CPUs offering six or eight cores each
- Power 740 Express (8205-E6D) supporting one or two POWER7+ processors with six to eight cores per CPU
- Power 750 Express (8408-E8D) offering one to four eight-core POWER7+ DCMs
- Power 760 (9109-RMD) capable of housing one to four twelve-core POWER7+ DCMs
- 2014
- Power Systems S821LC, S822/L, S814, S824/L models
- Power Systems E870 and E880
- 2015
- Power Systems E850
- Power Systems S812L/LC series
- Power Systems S822LC
- 2017
- Power Systems AC922, LC922, IC922, L922 variants
- Power Systems S914, S922, S924 models
- Power Systems H922 and H924 editions
- Power Systems E950 and E980
- 2021
- Introduction of the Power E1080 model designed specifically for scalable hybrid cloud infrastructures
- 2022
- Launch of Power S1014, S1022s, S1022, and S1024 servers
- Release of the midrange-optimized Power E1050 tailored for scale-out workloads
- 2024
- Debut of the Power S1012 system enhancing artificial intelligence workload performance spanning core data centers to cloud and edge environments
All IBM Power Systems servers utilize IBM PowerVM as their virtualization solution.