New Power 8 Linux Servers released by IBM

May 2014

Big Blue just announced the Power 8 server line.  Linux power is the key intention with this. The Power8 silicon is being offered in a number of configurations, including a 3.02 GHz chip with 12 or 24 cores, a 3.52 GHz 24-core processor and a 4.15 GHz processor with 8 or 16 cores.
Types of server configurations, IBM is announcing five new Power8 servers, two of which are Linux-only systems. The Power S822 is a 2U server that can be configured with up to 1,024 GB of RAM, and it can be equipped with a 3.89 GHz Power8 chip with either 6 or 12 cores or a 3.42 GHz processor with 10 or 20 cores enabled.

The Linux version of that server is the Power S822L, and it can be outfitted with either a 20-core 3.42 GHz chip or a 24-core 3.02 GHz processor. The other Linux-only server is the Power S812L, which is also a 2U server, and it provides up to 512 GB or RAM, with 10-core 3.42 GHz and 12-core 3.02 GHz processor options.

With the Power8 server launch, IBM is now adding support for Ubuntu Linux. Historically IBM has only supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) on Power systems.