Powerful, but not power hungry: the new System z

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The future runs on System z: that's the message from the Logicalis System z team in response to IBM's recent announcement of its successor to the z9-EC mainframe, the z10-EC.

So what's new with IBM System z? Enhanced performance is one of the biggest benefits and value of the new version of System z, according to Martin Boakes, a System z specialist at Logicalis.

"We expect the new z10-EC to really upset the apple cart, by being the first to install a quad-core chip in an enterprise server. With this new chip, IBM has ramped up the clock speed to 4.4 GHz, up from 1.7 GHz on the older z9-EC," he says.

In addition to other new System z features, he expects improved clock speed to really benefit compute-intensive applications. And this, in turn, has the potential to really challenge applications and workloads normally considered to run only on the distributed platforms, he says.

But while the z10-EC is powerful, it's by no means power-hungry. The z10-EC is designed to reduce energy usage by greater than 80% and save floor space by greater than 85% when used to consolidate x86 servers. With increased capacity, z10-EC's virtualisation capabilities can help to support hundreds or thousands of virtual servers in a single 2.83 square meters footprint.

Companies that opt for the new system can monitor these energy efficiencies for themselves. Once a z10-EC is installed and operational, a mainframe power monitoring tool provides IT managers with power and thermal information via the System Activity Display (SAD). "This will give data centre administrators the information they need to properly estimate power inputs and more accurately plan data centre consolidation or modification projects," says Boakes.

"The z10-EC is the next step in the evolution of the System z mainframe, fulfilling our promise to deliver technology improvements in areas that the mainframe excels in --energy efficiency, scalability, virtualisation, security and availability," he says. The Logicalis team, he adds, is primed to offer advice and information on the new System z release, enabling clients to identify how it can support the future of their businesses.

Your Comments and Questions

Victoria, 6 months ago

I just read on GigaOM (http://gigaom.com/2008/04/08/ibms-new-green-machine/) about IBM’s new supercomputer that uses water to cool down the device and reduce overall energy consumption. I am particularly intrigued about the news that IBM researchers are working on computers that allow water to go directly inside the chip to deliver further energy savings. This must surely be a first for an IT company? What does everyone else think about this announcement?

Martin Boakes, 6 months ago

Jeremy - I think we're already starting to see many vendors (not just IBM) selling us their own energy efficient message whether it be by the use of hardware or software. What interests me the most is that no matter which way we look at it centralised computing and management is on it's way back. I firmly believe that the System z10 is the most suitable platform to achieve this on and is a real turning point for IBM and the old "mainframe". However it'll all depend on the environment and the applications running on them. Some will be more suited to a large Unix environment, others to a large x86 farm running VMWare for example. Now who was it that said the mainframe was dead back in the early 90's??

Jeremy Taylor, 6 months ago

I'm interested in reading about the new virtualisation capabilities in the z10-EC. Do you think we'll see more energy-efficient features across IBM's product portfolio – or, if not necessarily more features, more hardware being sold on the basis of its efficiency ‘rating’?