A Look at Recent POWER9 Enhancements, Updated Performance Numbers

Edit: Still good information

Originally posted September 8, 2020 on AIXchange

Rob McNelly discovers another hack. This IBM Redpaper increased bandwidth and faster data transfers.

This IBM Redpaper examines recent updates to POWER9™-based servers: namely the S924, S922 and S914 G models. It also covers the performance impact that PCIe Gen 4 slots bring to this hardware. Short version: increased bandwidth and faster data transfers.

The Redpaper covers a lot of ground in just two chapters, and I encourage you to download the document. To give you an idea of the content, I’ll highlight the basic speeds and feeds for the updated systems:

The Power S922 (9009-22G) server is a 1-2 socket server that includes up to 22 activated cores. If only one socket is populated at the time of the order, the second socket can be populated later.

The Power S922 server supports a maximum of 32 DDR4 registered DIMM (RDIMM) slots. If only one processor socket is populated, then only 16 RDIMMs can be used. Supported memory features are 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB. The S922 runs at speeds of 1600, 2133 or 2666 MHz and offers a maximum system memory of 2 TB if one socket is single-chip populated and 4 TB with both sockets populated.

The Power S914 (9009-41G) server includes up to eight activated cores. A one-socket system with a 4- or 6-core processor is available in either rack (19-inch rack-mount 4U) or tower configurations. The higher performance 8-core higher system is available only in a rack configuration.

The Power S914 server supports a maximum of 16 DDR4 error-correcting code (ECC) RDIMM slots. Supported memory features are 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. The S914 runs at speeds of 2133 or 2666 MHz and offers maximum system memory of 1 TB.

The Power S924 (9009-42G) server is a 1-2 socket server that includes up to 24 activated cores. This server supports two processor sockets, offering 8 or 16 cores at 3.8-4.0 GHz, 10 or 20 cores at 3.5-3.9 GHz, 11 or 22 cores at 3.45-3.9 GHz, or the maximum core configuration with 12 or 24 cores at 3.4-3.9 GHz. The systems are in a 19-inch rack-mount, 4U drawer configuration. All the cores are active.

The Power S924 server supports a maximum of 32 DDR4 RDIMM slots per processor socket that is populated. Supported memory features are 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB. Maximum system memory is 4 TB.

Learn more about these systems by listening to the Power Systems VUG July 30 meeting replay. (Slides here.)

Also be sure to check out the recently updated IBM Power Systems Performance Report, which provides the latest rperf and CPW numbers for POWER9 hardware.