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| POWER10 chip Courtesy IBM |
We have followed IBM’s POWER products[1] since their first appearance as “Power PC”, when even some Apple systems had a POWER microprocessor. We followed its evolution with commentary, analysis, and insights on its evolution and improvements up to the current (Aug. 17, 2020) IBM POWER10 announcement. Overall, we are fans, believing it to be a worthy challenger to Intel’s server market domination. Here we review and comment on the latest announcement. All quotes are from the press release[2].
If it meets IBM’s expectations, POWER10 is potentially an impressive, market-leading product. Here’s a summary of some of its anticipated advantages as stated in the IBM press release:
- This will be “IBM’s first commercialized processor built using 7nm process technology”. It “is expected to deliver up to a 3x gain in processor energy efficiency per socket” over a comparable POWER9 chip. This “anticipated” 3-fold improvement far exceeds the typical 30% or so of past incremental increases. It “is designed to allow new POWER10 systems built around this chip to support up to 3x increases in users, workloads and OpenShift container density for hybrid cloud workloads as compared to IBM POWER9-based systems”.
- An embedded Matrix Math Accelerator is “expected to achieve” faster AI inference performance of 10X for FP32, 15X for BFloat16 floating point and 20X for Integer. AI inference is becoming central to modern data processing. If realized, the implications of these performance jumps are huge.
- Memory Inception, a new technology, allows clustered POWER10 systems to share direct access to each other’s memory. Thus “creating multi-Petabyte sized memory clusters” without any one system having an excessive amount of memory. Imagine the impact on memory-intensive apps like SAP, and the cost savings from avoiding “over-provisioning” to meet demand spikes.
- Security enhancements include “hardware memory encryption for end-to-end security and faster cryptography performance…additional AES encryption engine” meets “today's leading encryption standards” while “anticipating” future needs such as for quantum-safe encryption protocols.
- IBM POWER10 has more enhancements than we discuss here, e.g. hardware co-optimized Red Hat OpenShift for one. These are covered in IBM’s press release.
Some Points to Ponder: A close reading of the press release reveals interesting information. IBM and Samsung collaborated to deliver this chip. As IBM sold its chip business to Global Foundries several years ago, Samsung Electronics will manufacture the chips.
The press release clearly states ALL performance claims are based on “pre-Silicon” engineering analysis of various environments. An indication to us that they come from theoretical, most likely computer-generated models. There are no measurements from functioning hardware. First system shipments are expected in the second half of 2021, i.e. 12 to 16 months from now. Most customers will not see a system until some time in 2022 when volume shipments will most likely occur. These dates (targets) are a long time away in this industry. Many things can and will change.
Early announcement of new POWER systems is not surprising. IBM clearly expects to see newsworthy improvements in efficiency, performance, and capabilities. Still, we look forward to substantive data from a real product before granting any rewards. Savvy readers will review the press release and form their own opinions about this situation and how it should factor into their plans and/or interest.
[2] The Aug.17, 2020 press release can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/yxs4hhqk. We recommend readers review the document. Comments are based on the version of the document as seen Aug. 20. We use some IBM terminology in this document.
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