IBM POWER 720 & 740

The 720 and 740 are both available as a tower or 4u rack mounted server. The 720 comes in three model choices; a four, six or eight core all based on the 3GHz POWER7 processor. It’s important to get the choice right first time as it can’t be changed later. The entry system is now a four core system and is in P05 software band – this is a big step-up in processing power from the entry POWER6 520, which had only one core, but the machine still has limited internal disk and no ability to connect external drawers. There are now eight internal disk slots though, so the capacity is pretty high but IO intensive applications may be limited by the relatively small number of disk arms.

The 720 does support Fibre Channel cards so there are options for connecting external storage in this way. The system has multiple cores but to make use of them, remember that it is necessary to have a valid licence for ‘i’ and subscription for each core you want to use. It is valid to only have a licence for one core initially and then buy further licences in the future if you want to make use of the processing power of the remaining cores. You can, of course, buy licences for AIX / Linux to utilise the other cores if you wish. Each core is rated at 5950cpw (unconstrained) so, comparing with older models, we are talking about a seriously powerful box even with only one core used.

Moving up the range, the six and eight core 720s are in the P10 software band and, as with the Power6 520, the restrictions of external connectivity are less; external drawers for cards and disks can be added via a 12X I/O loop. Again, the cores are rated at 5950cpw per core and the eight core model is rated at 46,300cpw in total with all cores used.

The 740 offers a one or two socket model; the former with four or six cores and the latter with eight, twelve or sixteen cores. The maximum rating is 97,700cpw for the 16 way box. All models are in P20 software band.

IBM POWER6 Upgrades

POWER6 releases have already demonstrated that upgrading is not as flexible as it has been in the past - with no upgrades available between the 520 systems. However, in our experience this has not been a problem; the decision on which box to recommend has been obvious, directed by either the expansion requirements - especially disk or I/O cards - or the budget. The 720 considerations will be similar – the entry system will be most cost effective for many customers who don’t need lots of disk arms.

The chart summarises upgrade paths available. Upgrade paths can allow you to preserve the serial number of your asset which sometimes has an accounting significance, but we believe there will be only a small gain in purchase price other than in the software transfer.

As before with the POWER6 systems, there are no upgrades between the 720 models so you have to ensure you buy in at the right level.

Other Hardware

Solid State Disks were introduced in SAS bays last year, there is now an additional option for larger SSDs – 177GB units – mounted on a PCIe / double width card. This is only supported on the 7xx servers, except 795, and requires V7R1. Considerably more expensive than spinning disks but much lower in cost per GB than previously, they will be most useful for either high I/O performance requirements or to maximise the use of space in the system unit.

Other items potentially of interest include LTO5 tape support internally, new 283GB Small Form Factor SAS disk drive and FCoE support.

This is only a very brief summary of an extensive announcement, for more specific information, advice or pricing, please contact Frontline:
Telephone 0161 486 4400 or Email Enquiry.