IBM unveils new Linux-based servers to boost AI, deep learning

Bengaluru : IBM on Thursday revealed a series of new servers designed to help propel cognitive workloads and to drive greater data centre efficiency.

Featuring a new chip, the Linux-based lineup incorporates innovations from the “OpenPOWER” community that deliver higher levels of performance and greater computing efficiency than available on any x86-based server.

Developed with some of the world’s leading technology companies, the new Power Systems are designed to propel artificial intelligence, deep learning, high performance data analytics and other compute-heavy workloads, which can help businesses and cloud service providers save money on data centre costs.

The three new systems are an expansion of IBM’s Linux server portfolio comprised of IBM’s specialised line of servers co-developed with fellow members of the OpenPOWER Foundation.

The new servers join the Power Systems LC lineup that is designed to outperform x86-based servers on a variety of data-intensive workloads.

“The user insights and the business value you can deliver with advanced analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence is increasingly gated by performance. Accelerated computing that can really drive big data workloads will become foundational in the cognitive era,” said Doug Balog, General Manager of POWER, IBM Systems.

Early testing with Tencent, one of the world’s largest Internet service providers based in China, has shown that a large cluster of the new IBM OpenPOWER servers was able to run a data-intensive workload three times faster than its former x86-based infrastructure.

IBM has collaborated with fellow technology industry leaders through the OpenPOWER Foundation to radically re-design the platform at the chip and system levels by incorporating the use of a wide range of accelerators to achieve greater levels of performance than available on traditional commodity servers.

IANS