The System z9 news is now on http://www.ibm.com (front page). Reuters, AP, Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, Search390, Infoworld, scores of newspapers, CNN, etc. are all reporting.
I'll give you all the very short technical version: this one's a big deal because it's 2X in pretty much every direction. (It's not just a "turbo" bump.) All the surprises are pleasant: - There's a 54-way model. (Analysts were expecting 38-way maximum.) The 54-way z9 is about 2X the 32-way z990. And there was no cheating here (like stealing SAPs). The 54-way still has 2 spares, too. - You can replace books nondisruptively and (usually) with no performance impact. Best I can come up with is "Zero Stop Repair" (my term). - Looks like memory and maintenance costs came down with this model, if I'm reading it right, so you get more for less (not just more for the same). The TCO advantage widens! - Some benchmark crypto scenarios are 3X. AES and SHA-256 are now pushed into CPACF, which is awfully important nowadays for quickly encrypting larger amounts of business-sensitive information. - Some very nice I/O enhancements, boosting DB2 and VSAM, for example. - Direct frame upgrade paths from z900 and z990. - Maximum memory up to 512 GB. (Linuxers, rejoice!) - Still no building-attached chilled water cooling (optional or required), unlike X86. :-) - Up to 60 LPARs now (versus 30 on the z990). (Linuxers, rejoice again!) Note that "System z9" (or "z9" for short) replaces the term "zSeries," much like p5 and i5 replaced pSeries and iSeries, respectively. My educated guess is that IBM wanted to make sure z kept the higher number, especially for the international markets. Good stuff, IMHO. *Very* good. No direct news for z890 customers -- which is not at all surprising since the z890 is very young and nowhere near through its cycle (going by history). But the indirect news is that zSeries just got another "prior model," and that's good for the whole 64-bit marketplace -- and for those of you needing more 31-bit upgrade options. (We now have a "prior model" with zAAP! Amazing.) - - - - - Timothy F. Sipples Consulting Software Architect, Enterprise Transformation IBM Americas zSeries Software NEW Phone: +1 312 529 1612 (effective 1 September 2005) E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (PGP key available.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
