IBM Power 9 (E980)

The IBM Power System E980 server is a large-scale SMP system that delivers high performance, scalability, reliability, availability, and serviceability with great virtualization capability for larger cloud environments. The IBM Power System E980 server uses modular building blocks called system nodes . The E980 can have one or two system nodes.

The Power System E980 server will support three and four systems nodes by November 16, 2018.

Summary of features

The following features are available on the IBM Power System E980 server:

• One or two 5U system nodes (in November, one to four)
• One 2U system control unit
• One to four processor features per system with four single-chip modules (SCMs) per feature:
  • Typical 3.9 - 4.0 GHz, 32-core POWER9 processor (#EFP1)
  • Typical 3.7 - 3.9 GHz, 40-core POWER9 processor (#EFP2)
  • Typical 3.58 - 3.9 GHz, 44-core POWER9 processor (#EFP4)
  • Typical 3.55 - 3.9 GHz, 48-core POWER9 processor (#EFP3)
  • Typical 3.58 - 3.90 GHz, 24-core POWER9 processor (#EFP0).
• CoD processor core activation features available on a per-core basis
• 32 CDIMM slots per system node
• DDR4 1600 MHz CDIMM memory cards:
  • 128 GB (4 x 32 GB), (#EF20)
  • 256 GB (4 x 64 GB), (#EF21)
  • 512 GB (4 x 128 GB), (#EF22)
  • 1024 GB (4 x 256 GB), (#EF23)
  • 2048 GB (4 x 512 GB), (#EF24)
• CoD memory activation features include:
  • 1 GB (static) Memory Activations (#EMAT)
  • 100 GB (static) Memory Activations (#EMAU)
  • 100 GB Mobile Memory Activations (#EMAV)
  • 100 GB Mobile Enabled Memory Activations (#EMAD)
  • 512 GB Memory Activations for Linux (#ELMD)
  • Plus activations for a few specific bundle scenarios
• Active Memory Expansion, optimized onto the processor chip (#EM89)
• Eight PCIe Gen4 x16 I/O low-profile expansion slots per system node (maximum 32 in a 4-node system)
• One USB port to support external attached DVD
• Redundant hot-swap AC power supplies in each system node drawer
• Two HMC ports in the system control unit
• Optional PCIe I/O Expansion Drawer with PCIe slots:
  • Zero to two drawers per system node drawer (#EMX0).
  • Each I/O drawer holds one or two 6-slot PCIe Fan-out Modules (#EMXG).
  • Each Fan-out Module attaches to the system node through a PCIe Optical Cable Adapter (#EJ07).