If you thought it was tough to get your hands on an Power 520 or Power 550 server using one of IBM's older dual core Power6 or Power6+ processors in the fourth quarter, then you're in for a shock. It is going to get a whole lot harder to get one of these machines very soon ... This is because Big Blue has pulled the plug on …

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Tuesday 8th February 2011 16:12 GMT Tony Chesser

Don't have source code?

IIRC, one of the "features" of OS/400, i5/OS. IBM i or whatever they're calling it this month, is that object code is stored in two forms: a VM-type object code and native platform object code. Consequently, when you move from Power6 to Power7, and you migrate your partition, it throws out the native platform object code and rebuilds it from the VM-type object code. This is so that you don't have to port the source code to the new hardware. If you had to actually port the software to new hardware, every time you did a hardware upgrade, you might be tempted to upgrade to a different hardware vendor while you were at it :-) Clearly, IBM would rather you didn't do that. Hence the reason for this feature.

So, why is it that you need the source code?

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Tuesday 8th February 2011 17:09 GMT Allison Park

We moved all purchases to power7 last summer

In comparing performance and price of power7 to power6 we found it worthwhile to move all new purchases to power7. Power7 has 5X the performance per footprint than power6 and ibm dropped the price/performance in half. We used to be late adopters but the price performance of power7 is incredible. I am guessing everyone else came to the same conclusion and power6 sales dried up quickly in lieu of power7. We actually went out and bought some 780's for our database servers and moved the p6 database machines down to the app tier. Called it our "cascading technology" project.

Cheers

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1. Tuesday 8th February 2011 18:53 GMT alwarming
  
  @We moved all purchases to power7 last summer
  
  Based on your older posts, and gusto in those posts, it's pretty clear that you work for IBM - probably server marketing.
  
  So why is IBM buying from IBM ?
  
  Paris, for the question mark sign.
  
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2. Wednesday 9th February 2011 10:40 GMT Jesper Frimann
  
  keep those
  
  Actually, I'd have a look at those POWER6 based 570'es, if that is what you have moved to app servers. When you need more capacity somewhere, rather than buying a new machine.
  
  I did the math here internally and it's actually cheaper in TCO to upgrade our 570'es, than buying new 770'es. If you are upgrading a 570 -> 770 then the upgrade path will give you the 3,5 GHz 6 cores/chip machines. They have a better RAM to CPU capacity ratio than the 8 core/chip config.
  
  And then the cores are 15% faster, which is also nice.
  
  My main problem is the stupid 'business' managers who don't see the advantages, cause they are to damn arrogant and thick headed to understand the concept of TCO.
  
  When talking about getting the most bang for the buck on POWER it's important to keep your infrastructure at Current and Current -1 technology. And by upgrading you are also on the easiest path to keep your serial number and your software licenses. That is really really worth something.
  
  What we actually have ended up with is a shitload of old POWER5(+) machines that aren't worth upgrading, and then we can waste time and money decommissioning, and selling them for almost nothing to brokers.
  
  // Jesper
  
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Tuesday 8th February 2011 18:38 GMT Philippe

Question on OS support

I just got hold of a 5+ years old Power4 server.

It was sitting idle in the IT guys cupboard gathering dust.

Is there any way to install an older Mac OS X (10.3 to 10.5) on this thing? and if so are there any documentation anywhere.?

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1. Tuesday 8th February 2011 18:59 GMT Jesper Frimann
  
  I think it's a pretty useless quest..
  
  But you should be able to get a linux up and running.
  
  // Jesper
  
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Wednesday 9th February 2011 10:38 GMT Anonymous Coward

The hidden cost nof Power/AIX

Doesn't surprise me... IBM need to keep the Power AIX product and services juggernaut rolling - their execs know how hard most companies find it to conduct proper TCO exercises and know most folks are dumb enough to buy "what's fastest".

So short support cycles for AIX and short sales cycles for Power systems force enterprise customers to upgrade more often they would like, fueling IBM service and product revenues.

Allison's point about "we used to be late adopters" just re-inforces my point - like it or not, with Power and AIX you have no choice about this, you can't be a late adopter and "sweat your asset"

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1. Wednesday 9th February 2011 11:38 GMT Anonymous Coward
  
  Yeah
  
  Most Enterprise customers don't like upgrading. "Don't fix what is not broken". To force customers to upgrade is not very Enterprise-ish. Enterprise servers run for many years, without interference or upgrading. Except IBM gear.
  
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