IBM Power Systems Expands I/O Features

New I/O enhancements are available for Power Systems from IBM Corp.

These include:

• Three SFF SAS disk drives in 139, 146, and 300 GB capacities boost the SFF server storage capacity on IBM Power 520, 550, 560, 570, 575, and 595 servers. The 139 GB (#1888) is a 15,000 rpm drive supported by IBM i. The 146 GB (#1886) is a 15,000 rpm drive and the 300 GB drive (#1885) is a 10,000 rpm drive supported by AIX and Linux. The new hot-swappable SAS drives are available on the IBM POWER6 processor-based family of servers in the SFF drive bays.
• A diskless 19-inch PCIe 12X I/O drawer (#5877) joins the already announced feature 5802 I/O drawer on the Power 520, 550, 560, and 570. The feature 5877 has 10 PCIe slots but has zero disk bays, offering a lower purchase price and lower maintenance price compared to the feature 5802 drawer with its 18 disk bays. Configuration rules and minimum operating system support rules are identical between the feature 5802 and feature 5877. This fulfills the statement of direction, announced in 109-305, dated April 28, 2009.
• IBM i 6.1 with 6.1.1 machine code, or later, supports the PCIe 380 MB Cache Dual – x4 3Gb SAS RAID Adapter (#5903), fulfilling another statement of direction, announced in 109-305, dated April 28, 2009. IBM i support of the feature 5903 allows IBM i clients to take advantage of the SFF disk bays in the feature 5802 and feature 5803 PCIe 12X I/O drawers, announced earlier using a SAS controller with write cache. A pair of feature 5903 adapters are always configured together to provide redundancy of both controllers and write cache (dual adapter support). This feature is supported on POWER6 processor-based servers.
• AIX, IBM i 6.1 with 6.1.1 machine code, or later, and Linux support redundant paired PCI-X DDR 1.5 GB Cache SAS RAID Adapters (#5904, #5906, and #5908) with the use of either 3 meter or 6 meter SAS adapter-to-adapter (AA) cables along with one or more X cables for device enclosure attachment. The operating system and cable allow pairing of controllers for redundantly accessing a set of drives running RAID protection. Paired controllers may reside in different I/O drawers for increased availability. For IBM i, the paired adapters must be used in a single-system configuration and the nonpaired indicator is not used. For AIX and Linux, the paired adapters may be used in either a single-system or two-system configuration. A nonpaired indicator (#5921) is used for AIX or Linux when the second adapter of a pair is on a different system.
• 12X PCIe I/O drawers (#5802 and #5803) support SFF Solid State Drive (SSD) (#1890 and #1909) for expanded configuration flexibility. Select the PCIe 380 MB Cache Dual – x4 3Gb SAS RAID Adapter (#5903) when configuring the 12X PCIe I/O drawers to control SFF drives. The 12X PCIe I/O drawer (#5802) is available on IBM Power 520, Power 550, Power 560, and Power 570. The 12X PCIe I/O drawer (#5803) is available on IBM Power 575 and Power 595.
• A new 10 Gb FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) PCIe Dual Port Adapter card (#5708) can provide not only 10 Gb Ethernet capability but can allow Fibre Channel protocols to run over the same network. This merger of adapter, cabling, and switches can reduce the complexity of installing or managing two different sets of medium and their switches. It can also reduce the number of PCI adapters required.
• A new USB mouse feature (#8845) replaces the previous USB mouse feature (#8841).
• Available on the Power 520 and Power 550 is an internal USB docking station (#1103) and external USB docking station. Available on the Power 560 and Power 570 is an external USB docking
  station (#1104). The docking stations support rugged removable disk
  cartridges in 160 GB capacity (#1106) and 500 GB capacity (#1107). The
  docking stations and a supply of rugged disk cartridges provide AIX
  clients a cost-effective alternative to using 8 mm VXA or DAT tape
  drives. USB Removable Disk Cartridges secure the business’ valuable
  assets. The rugged removable disk cartridges and docking stations
  provide backup and restore, including boot support similar to tape
  drive.
• To assist clients employing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) technology to track their equipment in their data centers, IBM can now optionally place RFID tags on selected Power Systems servers and racks, HMCs, and IBM BladeCenter servers. The tag is designed to meet the performance and numbering specification as outlined by the radio frequency identification (FSTC) specifications.

Planned availability date
October 30, 2009