IBM i 7.4 Hardware Enhancements for POWER9 and POWER8 Systems

Details of each POWER9 and POWER8 hardware enhancement provided by the release of IBM 7.4 (V7R4) are below the initial summary, organized by IBM Power generation and topic. The new IBM POWER9 and POWER8 hardware features provided for OS400 V7R4 are now all available for ordering as of June 21, 2019. Read about IBM i 7.4 (V7R4) announcement details here.

IBM V7R4 announcement provides the following I/O enhancements for Power9 scale-out and scale-up system models:

• 1.6 TB, 3.2 TB, and 6.4 TB PCIe3 Enterprise SSD NVMe adapters for Power9 E980, E950, L922, S922, S914, S924, H922, and H924 servers
• 1.6 TB and 3.2 TB Mainstream SSD NVMe U.2 modules for Power9 E980 server
• PCIe3 6-Slot Fan-out Module, PCIe x16 to CXP Optical or CU converter Adapter, and Active Optical Cables for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer for Power9 E980, E950, L922, S922, S914, S924, H922, and H924 servers
• Storage Backplane with HI Performance plus 2x24-Port for Power9 E950 server

IBM V7R4 provides the following I/O enhancements for both Power9 and Power8 scale-out and scale-up system models:

• 931 GB, 1.86 TB, 3.72 TB, and 7.45 TB 2.5-inch Mainstream Solid-State Drives (SSD) for the following IBM Power9 and Power8 System models: E980, E950, L922, S914, S922, S924, H922, H924, S812L, S822L, S824L, S814, S812, S822, S824, E870, E870C, E880, E880C, E850, and E850C servers
• 387 GB, 775 GB, and 1.55 TB 2.5-inch Enterprise Solid-State Drives (SSD) for the following IBM Power9 and Power8 System models: E980, E950, L922, S914, S922, S924, H922, H924, S812L, S822L, S824L, S814, S812, S822, S824, E870, E870C, E880, E880C, E850, and E850C servers
• Deactivation of LPM for Dedicated Servers for Power E980, E950, S922, S914, and S924 servers
• IBM i V7R4 Indicator for the following IBM Power9 and Power8 System models: E980, S914, S922, S924, H922, H924, S814, S812, S822, S824, E870, E870C, E880, and E880C servers

Hardware Enhancements for POWER9 provided with V7R4

IBM EC5B and EC5G PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapter
The IBM EC5B and EC5G PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapters provide a low write latency and use nonvolatile flash memory (NVMe), which is a high-performance software interface for reading and writing to flash memory. IBM EC5B and EC5G PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapters can provide significantly more read or write IOPS and significantly larger throughput (GB/sec) compared to SAS/SATA SSD. The IBM PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is designed for read-intensive workloads with light write activity of approximately 8,760 TB to 17,000 TB of data that can be written over the life of the adapter, but will vary depending on the workload.

The IBM EC5B and EC5G PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapters are ideal for high-value applications where the content in the adapter must be protected. It is recommended to use additional NVMe Flash adapters with OS mirroring or software RAID. After the IBM warranty period expires and the maximum write capability is achieved, replacement will not be covered by IBM maintenance.  

The IBM EC5B PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapters is available for IBM Power9 S924, S914, and H924 servers, and the IBM EC5G PCIe3 LP 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is available for Power9 E980, L922, S922, and H922 servers. IBM EC5G and EC5B are identical cards except the tailstock bracket is different. IBM EC5G fits a half-profile PCIe slot, and IBM EC5B fits a full-high PCIe slot. For a PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapter with more memory, see IBMs EC5D and EC5C. The PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is not supported in the PCIe Gen3 I/O drawer. Data protection is not implemented in the card; protection is provided by OS mirroring or software RAID. 

IBM EC5C and EC5D PCIe3 3.2 TB SSD NVMe Adapter
The IBM EC5C and EC5D PCIe3 3.2 TB SSD NVMe Adapters provide a low write latency and use nonvolatile flash memory (NVMe), which is a high-performance software interface for reading and writing to flash memory. IBM EC5C and EC5D PCIe3 3.2 TB SSD NVMe Adapters can provide significantly more read or write IOPS and significantly larger throughput (GB/sec) compared to SAS/SATA SSD. The IBM PCIe3 3.2 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is designed for read-intensive workloads with light write activity of approximately 8,760 TB to 17,000 TB of data that can be written over the life of the adapter, but will vary depending on the workload.

The IBM EC5C and EC5D PCIe3 3.2 TB SSD NVMe Adapters are ideal for high-value applications where the content in the adapter must be protected. It is recommended to use additional NVMe Flash adapters with OS mirroring or software RAID. After the IBM warranty period expires and the maximum write capability is achieved, replacement will not be covered by IBM maintenance. 

The IBM EC5D PCIe3 3.2 TB SSD NVMe Adapters is available for IBM Power9 E950, S924, S914, and H924 servers, and the IBM EC5C PCIe3 LP 3.2 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is available for Power9 E980, L922, S922, and H922 servers. IBM EC5D and EC5C are identical cards except the tailstock bracket is different. IBM EC5D fits a half-profile PCIe slot, and IBM EC5C fits a full-high PCIe slot. For a PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapter with more memory, see IBMs EC5F and EC5E. The PCIe3 3.2 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is not supported in the PCIe Gen3 I/O drawer. Data protection is not implemented in the card; protection is provided by OS mirroring or software RAID.

IBM EC5F and EC5E PCIe3 LP 6.4 TB SSD NVMe Adapter
The IBM EC5F and EC5E PCIe3 LP 6.4 TB SSD NVMe Adapters provide a low write latency and use nonvolatile flash memory (NVMe), which is a high-performance software interface for reading and writing to flash memory. IBM EC5F and EC5E PCIe3 LP 6.4 TB SSD NVMe Adapters can provide significantly more read or write IOPS and significantly larger throughput (GB/sec) compared to SAS/SATA SSD. The IBM PCIe3 LP 6.4 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is designed for read-intensive workloads with light write activity of approximately 8,760 TB to 17,000 TB of data that can be written over the life of the adapter, but will vary depending on the workload.

The IBM EC5F and EC5E PCIe3 LP 6.4 TB SSD NVMe Adapters are ideal for high-value applications where the content in the adapter must be protected. It is recommended to use additional NVMe Flash adapters with OS mirroring or software RAID. After the IBM warranty period expires and the maximum write capability is achieved, replacement will not be covered by IBM maintenance. 

The IBM EC5F PCIe3 LP 6.4 TB SSD NVMe Adapters is available for IBM Power9 E950, S924, S914, and H924 servers, and the IBM EC5E PCIe3 LP 6.4 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is available for Power9 E980, L922, S922, and H922 servers. IBM EC5E and EC5F are identical cards except the tailstock bracket is different. IBM EC5E fits a half-profile PCIe slot, and IBM EC5F fits a full-high PCIe slot. For a PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapter with more memory, see IBMs EC5F and EC5E. The PCIe3 LP 6.4 TB SSD NVMe Adapter is not supported in the PCIe Gen3 I/O drawer. Data protection is not implemented in the card; protection is provided by OS mirroring or software RAID.

IBM EMXH PCIe3 6-Slot Fan-out Module for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer
The IBM EMXH PCIe3 fan-out module for PCIe Gen3 I/O Expansion Drawer provides six hot plug PCIe Gen3 full-high slots, full-length slots (two x16 and four x8). The EMXH fan-out module has two CXP ports that are connected to two CXP ports on a PCIe Optical Cable Adapter (connects to EJ19, EJ20, or EJ1R PCIe3 Optical Cable Adapter). A pair of active optical CXP cables (ECCR, ECCX, ECCY, or ECCZ) or a pair of ECCS CXP copper cables are used for the connection. The top CXP port of the EMXH fan-out module is cabled to the top CXP port of the PCIe3 Optical Cable Adapter. The bottom CXP port of the fan-out module is cabled to the bottom CXP port of the same PCIe3 Optical Cable Adapter.

The IBM EMXH PCIe3 6-Slot Fan-out Module for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer is available for Power9 E980, E950, L922, S922, S914, S924, H922, and H924 servers. You cannot mix EMXF, EMXG, ELMF, ELMG PCIe3 fan-out modules with the IBM EMXH PCIe3 fan-out module in the same I/O Expansion Drawer, but mixing of EMXF, EMXG, ELMF, ELMG PCIe3 fan-out modules in I/O Expansion Drawer in same configuration is allowed.

IBM EJ19 PCIe x16 to CXP Optical or CU converter Adapter for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer
The IBM EJ19 PCIe3 x16 adapter is available for the Power9 E980 server and provides two optical CXP ports for the attachment of two active optical cables (one optical pair IBM such as ECCR, ECCY, or ECCZ). One adapter supports the attachment of one PCIe3 module in a PCIe Gen3 I/O Expansion Drawer. CCIN is 6B53. IBM EJ19 is a follow-on product to IBM EJ07. IBM EJ19 is only supported on an I/O expansion drawer with the new PCIe3 6-slot fan-out module (EMXH).

IBM EJ20 PCIe x16 to CXP Optical or CU converter Adapter for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer
The IBM EJ20 PCIe3 x16 adapter is available for Power9 E950, S914, S924, and H924 servers and provides two optical CXP ports for the attachment of two active optical cables (one optical pair IBM such as ECCX or ECCY or copper cable ECCS). One adapter supports the attachment of one PCIe3 module in a PCIe Gen3 I/O Expansion Drawer. CCIN is 2CF5. IBM EJ20 is a follow-on product to IBM EJ08. IBM EJ20 is only supported on an I/O expansion drawer with the new IBM EMXH PCIe3 6-slot fan-out module.

IBM EJ1R PCIe x16 to CXP Optical or CU converter Adapter for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer
The IBM EJ1R PCIe3 x16 adapter is available for Power9 L922, S922, and H922 servers and provides two optical CXP ports for the attachment of two active optical cables (one optical pair IBM such as ECCX or ECCY or copper cable ECCS). One adapter supports the attachment of one PCIe3 module in a PCIe Gen3 I/O Expansion Drawer. CCIN is 58FF. IBM EJ1R is a follow-on product to the EJ05. IBM EJ1R is only supported on an I/O expansion drawer with the new IBM EMXH PCIe3 6-slot fan-out module.

Active Optical Cables for PCIe3 6-Slot Fanout Module
Four new Active Optical cables (AOC) are available on Power9 servers to connect to the new PCIe x16 to CXP Optical or CU converter Adapter (EJ19, EJ20, EJ1R). Active Optical Cable offers the following length cables:

• IBM ECCR 2M Active Optical Cable Pair for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer, only available for E980
• IBM ECCX 3M Active Optical Cable Pair for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer
• IBM ECCY 10M Active Optical Cable Pair for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer
• IBM ECCZ 20M Active Optical Cable Pair for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer, only available for E980
• IBM EJ0C Storage Backplane with HI Performance plus 2x24-Port

The IBM EJ0C Storage Backplane with HI Performance plus 2x24-Port provides Power9 E950 customers with a new storage option, along with the existing three storage IBMs (EJ0B, EJBB, EJSB). The IBM Power9 E950 server has eight SFF (2.5 in.) SAS bays for HDDs or SSDs, plus four NVMe 2.5-inch bays. One or two PCIe SAS adapters support the SAS bays. One of these SAS options must be selected:

• Storage Backplane with HI Performance plus 2x24-Port (EJ0C).
• DASD Backplane with no HDD/SDD drive selected. No PCIe SAS adapter is required (EJ0B).
• Base DASD backplane together with one SAS PCIe adapter and select SAS drives (EJBB).
• Split DASD backplane together with two SAS PCIe adapters and select SAS drive (EJSB).

NVMe drive options can be selected with any of the above SAS options.

The base and the split backplane options provide SFF-3 SAS bays in the system unit. These 2.5-inch or small form factor (SFF) SAS bays can contain SAS drives (HDD or SSD) mounted on a tray or carrier. Thus, any drives that are designated for SFF-1, or SFF-2 bays do not fit in an SFF-3 bay. All SFF-3 bays support concurrent maintenance or hot-plug capability. These backplane options support HDDs or SSDs or a mixture of HDDs and SSDs in the SFF-3 bays. If mixing HDDs and SSDs, they must be in separate arrays.

The base and the split options can offer different drive protection options: RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10. RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives of the same capacity. RAID 6 requires a minimum of four drives of the same capacity. RAID 10 requires a minimum of two drives. Hot spare capability is supported with RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10.

Detailed Information on all of the enchancements both POWER8 and POWER9 hardware has recieved is on the following page: