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Newest Server From IBM Boasts 256-Cores
By Bryan Young
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-08-24
IBM has rolled out it's largest Unix server to date with the new Power 795. It is designed for companies with large-scale database applications or who want to integrate several Unix/Linux systems into one large virtualized system.
The Power 795 is a beast of a system, with up to 8 TB of main memory and eight processor "books". Each of IBM's "books" contains four Power7 processor chips, while each chip holds six or eight processor cores. Each also has 32 memory DIMM slots, four I/O ports, and two service processors. Right now, the Power 795 system can be split into 254 separate partitions. IBM says it hopes to increase that number to 1,000 by next year, with little or no need for customers to do anything more than a simple firmware update.
This system is built with scalability in mind. For instance, there are two different modes that can be booted into. There is "MaxCore" mode, which utilizes up to the full 256 core capacity at 4GHz, handling any amount of data with ease. Alternatively, you can choose to boot into "TurboCore" mode which runs half the processors (up to 128) with double the cache per core, running them at 4.25 GHz for faster performance. For partitions running AIX 6.1 or later, there is a service called Active Memory Expansion which uses compression of memory content to provide up to a 100% boost in memory usage over physical memory installed. So if you have 1GB of memory, you can do the work of 2GB of memory, 4GB can do the work of 8GB, and so on.
One of the most attractive features for a company with goals of expansion is IBM's "Capacity on Demand" options. With this, a fully loaded system can be purchased, only using a portion of its capacity. As more processor cores or memory is needed, there is the option to pay to increase total capacity in single core or 1GB increments respectively.
About the Author:
Bryan Young is a staff writer for WebProNews.
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