Following all of the Linux and broader open-source software enablement around Power11 the past three or so years, IBM today formally announced their new Power11 hardware.
IBM announced Power11 today for their next-generation of Power servers for both on-premises and within the IBM Cloud.
IBM is talking up Power11 as delivering 55% better core performance over Power9 and up to 45% more capacity with higher core counts in entry and mid-range servers compared to Power10:
“With support for autonomous operations, Power11 delivers intelligent performance gains that reduce complexity and improve workload efficiency. Power11 offers up to 55% better core performance compared to Power9 and has up to 45% more capacity with higher core counts in entry and mid-range systems compared to Power10. This upgraded performance means that with Power11, enterprises are positioned to achieve enhanced flexibility and security, to transform their enterprise processes through automation.”
Unfortunately, not too much more on the performance/power side was shared with today’s launch announcement.
IBM also talked up the reliability of Power11 in today’s announcement:
“Power11 is designed to be the most resilient server in the history of the IBM Power platform, with 99.9999% of uptime.”
More details on Power11 can be found via the IBM.com press release.
IBM Power11 servers with the Power E1180, Power E1150, Power S1124, and Power S1122 are expected to reach GA availability in late July.
While Power9 was quite popular with open-source hardware fans thanks to the creations out of Raptor Computing Systems, not all of the Power10 firmware was open-source. Open-source issues for Power10 and expensive motherboards ultimately led Raptor to not pursuing any Power10-based open-source system. It will be interesting to see if there will be any Blackbird / Talos type successor now for Power11 if the firmware is back to being fully open-source.