IBM cheapens Oracle by delivering promised power-up for some POWER servers

IBM has delivered on its December 2022 “statement of direction” that it would announce "a high-density 24-core processor for the IBM Power S1014 system" with news that the "processor" is actually a CPU module with two dozen cores for said server. The change nonetheless means that the S1014 – a single socket machine that's the …

[druck]

Rise of the ARM

But Big Blue no longer has the non-x86 market to itself: Arm recently asserted that its chip designs power five percent of the server fleets across AWS, Azure, and Google clouds. While Arm is making inroads at hyperscalers, few suggest it will do likewise in the sort of on-prem roles at which POWER systems excel.

The same few which poured scorn on ARM being used by hyperscalers, no doubt.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this a true 24-core Power10 chip or a fake 12-core chip x 2 in a DCM?

This looks like another IBM vaporware announcement as there are no updated IBM documentation showing the details of this new "24-core Power10 processor (#EPH8) module".

Not in the rebook here: https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5675.html, not on the main product page here: https://www.ibm.com/products/power-s1014, and not anywhere else that I can find. And why would IBM announce just a single-socket server for Oracle Database SE2 when Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 allows for 2-socket systems and therefore the IBM Power S1022 which also supports 24-cores but with two sockets? Maybe its to offer a lower priced server? The IBM Power S1022 configuration shown here is quite expensive at $133,500 https://www.ibm.com/easytools/cpds/power/us-en?pageid=170728

You can get an Oracle Database Appliance X9-2L with 32-cores and twice the storage for less than half of that price and its fully optimised for Oracle Database.

[elip]

Re: Is this a true 24-core Power10 chip or a fake 12-core chip x 2 in a DCM?

No doubt about it, as someone who runs both Power and SPARC gear, I cannot believe people continue to pay the IBM POWER premium. The cost is staggering. The management software/middleware, just plain terrible. But hey, at least they started packaging OpenSSH with AIX 7.3. Only took em 20 years to catch on. :-D