IBM Power Systems Enhances I/O

IBM Power Systems enhances I/O with mainstream 2.5-inch SAS SSDs

New 931GB, 1.86TB, 3.72TB, and 7.45TB 2.5-inch SAS SSDs are introduced for POWER9 and POWER8 technology-based servers using SAS bays.

These drives are supported in POWER9 and POWER8 system units (SFF-3) and in expansion drawers such as the EXP24SX attached to POWER9 and POWER8 servers (SFF-2).

With their capacity and lower cost per gigabyte, the drives can provide a cost-effective and footprint-effective solution for many mainstream configurations.

Note these drives are designed for workloads with modest write requirements, including as boot drives where SSD performance is desired.

These drives are rated at 1 DWPD, meaning you can write 931GB, 1.86TB, 3.72TB, or 7.45TB to the SSD every day for five years, nearly 1.7PB for the 931GB SSD.

• Power AC922 support for rack integration on the IBM Enterprise Slim Rack (7965-S42)
• Power AC922 servers MTMs 8335-GTG, 8335-GTH, and 8335-GTX are now supported to be installed and shipped in an IBM supplied 19-inch rack. Rack integration is only supported on Enterprise Slim Rack (7965-S42). Rack integration is not supported on the IBM 42U Slim Rack (7965-94Y).

Two new attachment indicators for Hardware Management Console (HMC)(7063-CR1) to identify POWER8 and POWER9 servers
If attaching an HMC M7063-CR1 to a new server, the HMC firmware level may need to be updated. To determine the HMC firmware level required on a POWER8 or POWER9 server, two feature codes are available in order to identify the correct HMC firmware level for the selected system. Feature EU38 is the attachment to POWER8 server indicator and feature EU39 is the attachment to POWER9 server indicator.

Planned availability date

• August 17, 2018, for all features except for features ELC5, EHDT, EHDU, EHDV, EHDW, EHDX, and ECL0
• August 24, 2018, for features ELC5, EHDT, EHDU, EHDV, EHDW, and EHDX
• August 31, 2018, for feature ECL0