IBM Power Systems introduces a number of I/O-related enhancements, offering improved functionality, performance, price/performance, and density across the Power product line.
The enhanced EXP30 Ultra SSD I/O Drawer (#EDR1) provides the IBM Power 770+ and IBM Power 780+ up to 30 solid-state drives (SSD) in just 1U of rack space without any PCIe slots. The drawer provides up to 480,000 IOPS and up to 11.6 TB of capacity for AIX® or Linux™ clients. Plus up to 48 additional HDDs can be directly attached to the Ultra Drawer (still without using any PCIe slots), providing up to 43.2 TB additional capacity in only 4U additional rack space for AIX clients. This ultra-dense SSD option is very similar to the Ultra Drawer (#5888), which remains available to the Power 710, 720, 730, and 740.
Two new GX++ adapters provide PCIe Gen2 functionality and performance in extremely dense and efficient packaging for the Power 795. The new GX++ adapters eliminate the need for a GX++ 12X adapter, 12X cables, a 12X-attached PCIe I/O drawer, and a PCIe adapter. In some cases, they may even alleviate the need for an expansion rack. Plus they also offer slightly lower latency compared to similar PCIe adapters as they are attached directly to the GX++ port. The two adapters are a 2-port 16Gb Fibre Channel adapter (#EN23) and a 2-port 10Gb Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) or Converged Network Adapter (#EN22).
IBM i 7.1 adds support for RDX Removable Media Devices. RDX docking stations and drives can provide a more reliable, higher performance, and lower cost option to traditional entry tape options such as DAT160 and older QIC and LTO-2 tape drives. IBM i 7.1 supports USB RDX Removable Disk on newer servers and supports the new SATA RDX Removable Disk (#EU07) on many earlier servers. In addition, IBM i 7.1 adds support for the USB-attached DAT160 tape drive.
IBM i 7.1 also adds support for a significantly lower priced 2-port asynchronous communications adapter (#5289 and #5290). Compared to the existing IBM i supported 2-port adapter (#2893 and #2894), the new adapter is half the price (less a modem) and is available as either a low-profile (#5289) or full-high (#5290) adapter, improving configuration flexibility.
RDX docking stations are refreshed with slightly newer technology (#EU03, #EU04, and #EU23) replacing the existing docking stations (#1103, #1104, and #1123) in most proposals. Similarly, the slimline DVD drive that is placed in Power 710 through Power 780 system units is refreshed and is now ordered as feature 5771 instead of the current feature 5762.
The 900 GB/856 GB 10k RPM SAS HDD (#1737, #1738, #1751, and #1752) offers lower cost per gigabyte and better storage density compared to smaller HDDs. Four feature numbers are used to identify if the drive is SFF-1 or SFF-2 and if shipped formatted with 528-byte sectors for RAID arrays (ordered for IBM i environments) or JBOD formatted with 512-byte sectors (ordered for AIX/Linux/VIOS environments).
PowerLinux™ servers improve their big data capabilities with new SSD features offering more attractive pricing (#ELQK (177 GB) and #ELQL (387 GB)) for the highest performance needs. Plus for lower performance but better cost per gigabyte, support is provided for the new 900 GB 10k RPM HDD.
The PCIe Gen2 RoCE Adapter capabilities are enhanced with expanded configuration options and expanded support. A new RoCE adapter (#EC29/#EC30) provides an SR fiber optical cabling option in addition to the existing adapter with copper cabling (#EC27/#EC28). RoCE support is expanded to include the Power 795.
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