IBM Power Platform

What you wanted to know about the iSeries

hardware POWER 5, POWER 6 and POWER 7

Myths Versus Reality

Is IBM i a dying platform, or still going strong?

Myth: Organizations are no longer investing in this

platform. The install base is shrinking quickly.

Myths Versus Reality

Is IBM i a dying platform, or still going strong?
Reality: An Info-Tech survey found that only 4% of
organizations are planning to migrate away from IBM i,
while 64% are planning to upgrade to new
hardware/software. (28% are staying with their current
version for the foreseeable future, while 3% are
exploring Managed Services/Hosting providers.)

Myths Versus Reality

Is IBM i a dying platform, or still going strong?

Myth: IBM i and its Power Systems hardware platform are

old technology.

Myths Versus Reality

Is IBM i a dying platform, or still going strong?

Reality: IBM has consistently delivered new Powerbased processors every three years since 2001, and has
consistently introduced new features ahead of most
competitors (e.g., 64-bit processing since 1995, and
virtualization via logical partitioning since 1988).

Myths Versus Reality

Is IBM i a dying platform, or still going strong?
Myth: IBM i (and its predecessors such as the
iSeries) only run applications that provide green
screen interfaces.

Myths Versus Reality

Is IBM i a dying platform, or still going strong?
Reality: 39% of respondents to an Info-Tech survey
are running web applications on an IBM i/iSeries
system. The release of IBM i v6.1 for Power Systems
(in 2007) added support for languages such as Java,
PHP, and C++, expanding the ability to provide
modern interfaces.
In addition, development tools are available to
create modern, web-based interfaces for interacting
with a legacy application, making even RPG-based
software accessible to tablets and smartphones.

Myths Versus Reality

Is IBM i a dying platform, or still going strong?

What is the canary in the mineshaft for IBM

Power Systems?

Myths Versus Reality

Is IBM i a dying platform, or still going strong?
The first sign that IBM i may in fact be dying and
following the path of OS/2 will be when major ISVs
stop supporting this platform.
At this time, the ISV market is still strong, especially
where it matters for this platform enterprise
software. IBM counts over 2,500 ISVs and 5,000
solutions available for Power Systems overall, and
over 850 ISVs and 2,300 applications for IBM i 6.1
and 7.1.

IBM POWER 5
Power Architecture
Microarchitecture Power PC
V2.02
276 million transistors and
has an area of 389 mm2

Introduced in 2004, supported 2 cores

Clock rate 1.5 Ghz to 2.3 Ghz
130 nm to 90 nm Feature Size
On the left a QCM with 4 POWER 5 chips
and 4 Level 3 cache memory of 36 Mb

IBM POWER 6
Power Architecture
Power ISA V2.05
790 million transistors and is
341 mm2

Introduced in 2007
Dual core processor, with each capable
of SMT.
Clock rate 3.5 Ghz to 4.7 Ghz
65 nm Feature Size

POWER7 System RAS

Reliability, Availability, and
Serviceability

Introduced in 2010
Power Architecture
Power ISA V2.06
45nm technology 567 mm2

Eight processor cores, 4 SMT threads

per core, 32 things at once!

Integrated L3 cache

POWER 7 Proton Bombardment

Because the real world can trip up the fastest computer, testing includes real world elements.
Solar flares, cosmic particles can cause temporary and permanent failures.
Errors generated in memory, registers and on the processor are detected, avoided,
recomputed ands if necessary the component is taken out of service automatically and the
problem logged and service call placed.