Publication
IBM J. Res. Dev
Paper

IBM Power Systems built with the POWER8 architecture and processors

View publication

Abstract

This paper describes architectures and significant implementation features of two systems in the IBM POWER8™ processor-based family of servers. Specifically, the scale-out 2-socket rack server and the enterprise scale-up 16-socket rack server are detailed. The description of these systems highlights the increase in memory bandwidth from previous POWER® systems, the enablement of coherent accelerators, the highly-extensible I/O subsystem, and the high-performance directly attached storage subsystem. In addition, reliability, availability, and serviceability features are described. These systems deliver significant increases in core count, memory, and input/output bandwidth over previous POWER systems - with reliability and availability enhancements commensurate with the performance improvements.