AIX > Trends > AIX

POWER Ahead

IBM announces new servers and AIX 7

Earlier this week, IBM announced five new Power Systems servers, which utilize POWER7 processor technology and the latest version of IBM’s UNIX operating system: AIX 7.

The September issue of IBM Systems Magazine, Power Systems edition will bring you all of the in-depth information you need to know about the new offerings, via interviews with IBM Offering Manager Tim Stack and other IBM executives. Until then, here’s a quick look at the announcements.

New Servers

Four new express servers and one high-end server join the Power Systems family. All of the servers are scheduled for general availability on Sept. 17. The express line offers workload-optimizing capabilities and energy-efficiency advantages of POWER7 processor technology in compact rack-mount or tower packages—ideal for small and midsize businesses.

The Power 795 server has up to 256 cores and memory up to 8 TB, which provide the performance, scalability and I/O efficient processing for your most demanding computing requirements.

IBM Power 710 Express and Power 730 Express 2U rack-mount servers offer a range of POWER7 processor options and a rich set of integrated capabilities. The POWER 710 Express provides, four, six or eight processor cores in one socket with up to 64 GB of memory. The Power 730 Express has two sockets with up to 16 processor cores and a maximum memory of 128 GB.

The Power 720 Express is another single-socket server with four, six or eight POWER7 processor cores, up to 128 GB of memory and extensive I/O expandability. It’s available as a rack-mount drawer or in a tower design.

The Power 740 Express is also available as a rack-mount drawer or a tower and offers one- or two-socket options ranging from four to 16 processor cores, and up to 256 GB of memory. It has many integrated capabilities and significant I/O expandability.

Additionally, IBM is offering eight, 16, 24 or 32 POWER7 processor cores (running at 3.55 GHz) for its POWER 750 Express server.

AIX Advancements

AIX 7, the next-generation of AIX technology, offers significant new capabilities for virtualization, security, reliability and system management and is available in express, standard and enterprise editions. This release provides enhancements to support and compliment IBM Power Systems servers and blades. Availability is planned for Sept. 10.

It’s binary compatible with AIX 5 and 6 (and earlier versions); current applications will run without recompiling. AIX 7 supports POWER4 and later processors. Prior upgrade tools will support AIX 7, and clients can move directly to AIX 7 from AIX 5 and 6.

AIX 5.2 Workload Partitions for AIX 7 allows legacy AIX 5.2 applications to run in a PowerVM workload partition running on AIX 7.1. This allows clients to take advantage of the latest Power Systems hardware enhancements for AIX 5.2 applications that haven’t been ported to AIX 5.3 or later.

PowerHA SystemMirror for AIXV7.1 Standard Edition—working with Cluster Aware AIX 7.1—enables simpler, more robust cluster formation and management. It represents a shift in the architectural notions of building and managing clusters for high availability; Cluster Aware AIX shifts key aspect of clustering technology into the AIX kernel. This announcement includes an update to POWERHA SystemMirror for AIX 6.1, improving multisite solutions for high availability and disaster recovery.

Can’t wait for the September issue? You can get additional technical details on AIX 7 from Technical Editor Ken Milberg in his preview articles “Preview Screening” and “Back for More.”

Tweet