On February 6th IBM announced its latest z16 mainframe. The LinuxONE 4 Express is an entry level z16 server aimed at Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). It is only available as a rack mount model, unlike the Rockhopper 4, which offered this as an option. In comparison with the earlier rack mount server it also has fewer upgrade options:
- The maximum number of engines is 16 (compared with 68),
- It has a single engine draw (verses 68),
- A single I/O drawer (verses 2) and
- A maximum memory of 1TB (verses 16TB).
It runs IBM’s Telum processor (manufactured by Samsung), which – like the Rockhoppers – runs at 4.6MHz, marginally slower than the 5.2MHz chips in the Emperor 4. A comparison of the current line-up of IBM 4 LinuxONE machines is shown in my Figure below.
These restrictions make the machine less performant than the other LinuxONE servers it currently sells; but, even so, it is significantly more powerful than almost all x86 servers sold by IBM’s competitors. Reducing specifications has also allowed IBM to offer the new machine at prices starting at $135k – the same level as the Express III launched in 2021.
When assessed by revenue IBM’s server market position has not recovered from its decision to offload its x86 server range to Lenovo 10 years ago. Nevertheless it has maintained a leading role through continuing to supply its RISC servers, where its Power servers and Oracle’s Sparc are they only remaining major offerings, and its mainframes, where it is also one of only a handful of suppliers currently in the market. My Figure above shows my assessment of the total processing power of its mainframes worldwide, measured in Billions of Instructions per Second (BIPS), by range and quarter.
For many years IBM has encouraged its existing and new customers to stretch the use its mainframes beyond traditional transaction processing workloads – by offering Linux versions as well as integration with its evolving hybrid multi-cloud, application modernization and cyber security strategies.
Organizations have several reasons to consider adopting IBM’s the LinuxONE 4 Express. For instance:
- Implementing an on-premise Large Language Model (LLMs) for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML),
- For environmental sustainability – reducing the data center’s carbon footprint in comparison with an x86 server estate with equivalent power,
- As a platform for modernizing corporate applications (especially when using containers) – IBM has transformed all of its own over the last decade or so, or
- For improving data center resilience, including Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) through integration with its storage and cyber security offerings.
IBM’s arguments are persuasive on a technical level and its has been successful in winning new customers over the years. However it often still faces organizational barriers. The use of x86 servers is so dominant in the market that few companies know how to adopt System z, and/or assume that it will be difficult and complicated to deploy and run. To overcome this prejudice I’m sure IBM will continue to publish case studies and research papers to draw attention to these machines.