Wait, did you hear that? That rumbling in the distance? Sounds like... a 16-socket IBM Power9 box shuffling this way

IBM this week introduced a 16-socket Power9 server monster. The E980 is the most powerful and scalable server in the IBM Power Systems portfolio. It is a follow-on to the E880 and E880C servers, and is vastly more powerful. There are model upgrades from IBM Power9-based E870, E870C, E880, and E880C systems. According to an …

[GidaBrasti]

So many threads!

With all those threads hanging around I would expect spectrecular performance.

[bazza]

Re: So many threads!

It's probably pretty quick. Power9 is a fine chip. It's especially good for banking applications, with its decimal maths accelerator.

[seven of five]

Re: So many threads!

PCIe4 and 64T of memory are not going to hurt, either.

[Daniel von Asmuth]

Gates's law

640 TB of memory should be enough for anybody

[Korev]

Re: So many threads!

> I would expect spectrecular performance.

I expect it to have a lot of Power

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So many threads!

With all those threads hanging around I would expect spectacular tapestry

[}{amis}{]

A Computer

My old man always sed that if you can move a box without a forklift its a terminal not a computer, so this looks like IBM are keeping up the tradition of putting the Iron into Big Iron Computers ;->

[J. Cook]

Re: A Computer

Considering how damned heavy the 550s are, I expect these to be a three-person lift for each part of a fully populated machine.

(needs a 'big iron' or POWERlifter icon. :) )

[Ken 16]

New customers?

I can't think of any usecases besides consolidating or scaling older p series estates.

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: New customers?

Could run Handbrake on it for ripping DVDs. Or so I'm led to believe...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: New customers?

Successor to Summit without having to build a data center the size of Rhode Island?

[seven of five]

Re: New customers?

S/4 HANA. The core to memory ratios are much more relaxed on power so you don´t have to scale out early.

[onefang]

But can it run Crysis and Fortnite at the same time?

[Anonymous C0ward]

And can it mine Bitcoin?

[ColonelClaw]

"It can take up to 4,000 or more directly attached SAS disks or solid-state drives (SSDs)"

?? up to, or more than?

[McKrack]

I presume it can run any number of discs, except exactly 4000. No other explanation

[diodesign]

Up to 4,000 or more

Yeah, yeah, we know it's odd. Check the spec sheet, it's what IBM says. I think the point is, you can go up to 4,000 on your own steam, and if you need more, Big Blue can make it happen.

C.

[StargateSg7]

I would be running my molecular level simulation determining the original chemical formula for Maurice Ward's STARLITE super-material which was able to withstand over 10,000 Degrees Celcius of heat.

That 1990's invention is now lost to the world after he died (he never revealed the formula)...BUT....since I know APPROXIMATELY the materials he had access to in the UK at his normal day job as a hair dresser AND after he noted taht STARLITE is mostly organic materials, I can now use this IBM Power machine to run through about 40 common hairdressing-related compounds and their 1000 or so constituent sub-components and use a molecular-strength search algorithm to find the MOST logical heat resistant formulations of the combinations of such compounds.

Using a Binary Search technique determining Minima, Maxima, Mean, Average and Sampled Middle of the Road molecular bond calculations and heat resistance results, I can now NARROW DOWN the search from over ( ( 2^40 ) x 1000 )^3 possible combinations down to about 2^64 combinations which CAN easily be searched and recalculated WITHIN MERE WEEKS on this type of IBM Power system.

Since Chemistry works from the basis of various HARD laws of physics, I think THIS MACHINE now makes it possible to RECOVER the most likely chemical formula for the organic material Maurice Ward claimed he mixed up in a common household blending machine which then became STARLITE!

I would then give the formula AND it's mixology methods AWAY FOR FREE!!! so that we can ALL paint thin coats of STARLITE on houses, vehicles, spacecraft, ships, engines of all types to protect from fire and heat!

[dedmonst]

DL580 is competition?

Umm I think HPE will claim that the Superdome Flex is what they would compete against a p980 with - it goes up to 32 SkyLake sockets...