Intel AS/400 RISC Server, 170 Servers, 7xx Servers manual Introduction

Chapter 1. Introduction

IBM System i and IBM System p platforms unified the value of their servers into a single, powerful lineup of servers based on industry leading POWER6 processor technology with support for IBM i operating system (formerly known as i5/OS), IBM AIX and Linux for Power.

Following along with this exciting unification are a number of naming changes to the formerly named i5/OS, now officially called IBM i operating system. Specifically, recent versions of the operating system are referred to by IBM i operating system 6.1 and IBM i operating system 5.4, formerly i5/OS V6R1 and i5/OS V5R4 respectively. Shortened forms of the new operating system name are IBM i 6.1, i 6.1, i V6.1 iV6R1, and sometimes simply ‘i’. As always, references to legacy hardware and software will commonly use the naming conventions of the time.

The Power 520 Express Edition is the entry member of the Power Systems portfolio, supporting both IBM i 5.4 and IBM i 6.1. The System i 570 is enhanced to enable medium and large enterprises to grow and extend their IBM i business applications more affordably and with more granularity, while offering effective and scalable options for deploying Linux and AIX applications on the same secure, reliable system.

The IBM Power 570 running IBM i offers IBM's fastest POWER6 processors in 2 to 16-way configurations, plus an array of other technology advances. It is designed to deliver outstanding price/performance, mainframe-inspired reliability and availability features, flexible capacity upgrades, and innovative virtualization technologies. New 5.0GHz and 4.4GHz POWER6 processors use the very latest 64-bit IBM POWER processor technology. Each 2-way 570 processor card contains one two-core chip (two processors) and comes with 32 MB of L3 cache and 8 MB of L2 cache.

The CPW ratings for systems with POWER6 processors are approximately 70% higher than equivalent POWER5 systems and approximately 30% higher than equivalent POWER5+ systems. For some compute-intensive applications, the new System i 570 can deliver up to twice the performance of the original 570 with 1.65 GHz POWER5 processors.

The 515 and 525 models introduced in April 2007, introduce user-based licensing for IBM i. For assistance in determining the required number of user licenses, see http://www.ibm.com/systems/i/hardware/515 (model 515) or http://www.ibm.com/systems/i/hardware/525 (model 525). User-based licensing is not a replacement for system sizing; instead, user-based licensing enables appropriate user connectivity to the system. Application environments require different amounts of system resources per user. See Chapter 22 (IBM Systems Workload Estimator) for assistance in system sizing.

Customers who wish to remain with their existing hardware but want to move to IBM i 6.1 may find functional and performance improvements. IBM i 6.1 continues to help protect the customer's investment while providing more function and better price/performance over previous

IBM i 6.1 Performance Capabilities Reference - January/April/October 2008
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