When you think of a mainframe, you might conjure up old-fashioned images of spinning tape drives, stacks of computer cards, or IBM 3270 terminals with green text on a black background. But IBM’s new mainframe, IBM LinuxONE Emperor 5, announced on May 6th, is very different. IBM LinuxONE 5 is the fifth generation of the company’s IBM LinuxONE platform, designed to deliver unprecedented levels of security, cost-effectiveness, and AI acceleration for mission-critical enterprise workloads. In particular, the new processor, IBM Telum II, is designed to fundamentally change how companies use Linux, data, and AI in the hybrid cloud era. At its heart is the Telum II processor. Manufactured on Samsung’s 5nm process technology, Telum II is equipped with eight high-performance cores running at 5.5GHz. The on-chip cache capacity has also been increased by 40%, with a virtual L3 cache of 360MB and a virtual L4 cache of 2.88GB.
In addition, the chip includes a dedicated next-generation on-chip AI accelerator capable of up to 24 trillion operations per second (TOPS), providing four times the computing power of the previous generation. In addition, for users who want the best AI performance, the IBM Spyre Accelerator is also supported. This accelerator uses a similar architecture to the AI accelerator integrated in the Telum II chip and has 32 AI accelerator cores. Multiple IBM Spyre Accelerators can be connected to the I/O subsystem of IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE via PCIe. Spyre shipments are scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2025. Of course, the right software is essential to maximize the performance of these hardware. The updated AI Toolkit for IBM LinuxONE, optimized for Telum II, increases developer productivity and streamlines the AI deployment process.
Technology previews of Red Hat OpenShift AI and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization are also available, allowing customers to centrally manage both traditional virtual machines (VMs) and containerized workloads through a unified interface in the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. When it comes to security, IBM LinuxONE 5 has advanced capabilities to address the evolving threat landscape. The platform further strengthens IBM’s end-to-end cybersecurity approach. For example, it offers confidential computing capabilities that encrypt data in memory. It also features post-quantum cryptography algorithms that comply with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards. In addition, the mainframe features state-of-the-art hardware security modules and supports confidential containers integrated with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. This ensures that sensitive AI models and data are protected against “harvest-now, decrypt-later” attacks, which are a concern in the post-quantum era. In addition, the integration of IBM Vault Self-Managed further strengthens secret management across hybrid environments. There is also a focus on operational efficiency, and IBM LinuxONE 5 allows organizations to consolidate workloads distributed across multiple servers onto a single, high-capacity system.
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According to IBM, this consolidation can reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 44% over a five-year period compared to x86-based alternatives. In addition, the system is designed to provide extremely high availability, called “nine-eight (99.999999%),” helping ensure business continuity and reduce risk while meeting the stringent demands of data-intensive, AI-enabled businesses. Tina Tarquinio, chief product officer for IBM Z and LinuxONE, said, “This announcement not only addresses today’s security and efficiency challenges, but also provides a platform that is firmly positioned for the next wave of AI-driven innovation.” As its name suggests, LinuxONE Emperor 5 runs Linux. Specifically, it runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), which has been optimized for LinuxONE. This article was edited for Japan by Asahi Interactive from an article published by Ziff Davis overseas.
SOURCE: Yahoo
