Edit: Did you get up to speed on the server?
Originally posted March 3, 2020 on AIXchange
IBM unveiled the Power Systems IC922 server last month. Here’s a handy list of where to learn more about it.
IBM unveiled the Power Systems IC922 server last month. For those who haven’t had time to dig into the details, here’s an information roundup.
Videos
* Nigel Griffiths and Gareth Coates webinar
* First look with Nigel Griffiths
* Five fast facts
Announcement Presentations and Information
* Slides: Part one and part two. Note: These slides track with the webinar video.
* Data sheet (excerpt below):
“IBM Power System IC922 provides the compute-intensive and low-latency infrastructure needed to unlock business insights from trained AI models. POWER9-based, Power IC922 provides advanced interconnects (PCIe Gen4, OpenCAPI) to support faster data throughput and decreased latency. Accelerated, the Power IC922 supports up to six NVIDIA T4 GPUs.”
* Announcement letter (excerpt below):
“The IBM Power System IC922 (9183-22X) server is a powerful new two-socket server designed for high-performance data analytics and computing workloads to help meet your accelerated computing needs.
“The Power System IC922 server offers:
* Two IBM POWER9 processor single-chip module (SCM) devices that provide high performance with 24, 32, or 40 fully activated cores and 2 TB maximum memory TPM2.0 for secure and trusted boot
* Up to 24 2.5-inch SAS3/SATA drives via 3 optional drive backplanes (each supporting 8 drives) and several optional SAS3/SATA adapters
* Up to six NVIDIA T4 GPU accelerators
* Two integrated USB 3.0 ports in rear and one USB 3.0 in front
* Two hot-swap and redundant power supplies: 2000 W 220 V AC with C20 receptacle
* Six hot-swap and redundant fans
* 19-inch rack-mount hardware with full rails and cable management arm included
….
“The Power System IC922 server supports two processor sockets, offering 12-core (2.8 GHz base frequency), 16-core (3.35 GHz base frequency), and 20-core (2.9 GHz base frequency) POWER9 technology-based system configurations in a 19-inch rack-mount with a 2U (EIA units) drawer configuration.
“The Power System IC922 server provides two hot-swap and redundant power supplies and 32 DIMM memory slots. Sixteen GB (#EM62), thirty-two GB (#EM63), and sixty-four GB (#EM64) supported memory features allow for a maximum system memory of 2 TB. Memory bandwidth is maximized with 16 DIMM memory slots populated.
Multiple I/O options in the system, including:
* Two PCIe x16 3.0 FHFL slots (supports double-wide accelerator)
* Two PCIe x16 4.0 LP slot
* Two PCIe x8 3.0 FHFL slots (physically x16)
* Two PCIe x8 3.0 FHFL slots
* Two PCIe x16 3.0 LP slots
* Up to 24 2.5-inch SAS3/SATA drives via 3 optional drive backplanes (each supporting 8 drives) and several optional SAS3/SATA adapters.”
Additional Coverage
* IBM Redbook: IBM Power System IC922―Technical Overview and Introduction
* IBM IT Infrastructure blog: “Complete your AI puzzle with inference”
* IBM Marketplace IC922 summary (excerpt below):
“Engineered for AI inference, the IBM Power System IC922 provides the compute-intensive and low-latency infrastructure you need to unlock business insights from trained AI models. The POWER9-based Power IC922 provides advanced interconnects (PCIe Gen4, OpenCAPI) to support faster data throughput and decreased latency. Accelerated, the Power IC922 supports up to six NVIDIA T4 Tensor Core GPU accelerators.”
Take the time to go through this material and you’ll be an IC922 expert in no time.