IBM combines Systems i and p into greener Power System

IBM has made some notable green strides with its newly unveiled line of Power System servers, according to an analysis piece by Joe Clabby. The water-cooling design for example, which brings H2O directly to the microprocessor, is pretty darn innovative and energy efficient.

Overall, Clabby notes, the machine’s “power, cooling, real-estate, and performance design features become even more pronounced when compared against a 64-core HP Superdome system. An 8-core Power 550 server offers 16 percent better performance than a comparably equipped HP Superdome; uses 98 percent less space; and uses 91 percent less energy.”

One other green point of interest: The Power System essentially takes the place of two machines, the System i (aka AS/400), built to host OS/400, and System p, built to run on IBM AIX (Unix). The machines, released in 1999, were similar to the point that they used many of the same parts. However, IBM said at the time that it was necessary to have the two different designs — and thus several different sets of parts — because “[System i] had several ‘unique requirements’ that could only be fulfilled by using a separate chassis design and separate, specially designed microprocessor,” Clabby writes.

As you may have already guessed, that’s changed with the newly released Power System: It’s capable of running not just one but three platforms: i (formerly i5/OS), Linux, and AIX. For IBM, it means greater savings from being able to buy more identical parts in bulk and not having to store as many different spare parts in its inventory. And from an overall green perspective, it means fewer resources are going into manufacturing and shipping some many different components.