z990 2084

The IBM eServer zSeries 990 is a major zSeries platform step building upon z900. The objective of z990 is to further extend and integrate key platform characteristics (e.g. dynamic, flexible partitioning and resource management in mixed and unpredictable workload environments, availability, scalability, clustering, systems management and QoS) with on demand e-business applications using technologies such as WebSphere, Java, and Linux, along with traditional applications for fast integration and deployment of heterogeneous business solutions.

zSeries 990 introduced a new microprocessor design. This new design and the exploitation of the CMOS9S-SOI technology will improve the uniprocessor performance by almost 60 % compared to z900 Model 2C1. However, the true capacity increase of the system is driven by the increased amount of Processor Units (PUs) per system: from 16 PUs in z900 to 32 PUs in a z990. Total system capacity will be extended by almost 3 times compared to z900 Model 216. The 32 PUs will be delivered in 4 model increments with 8 PUs each plus up to 64 GigaBytes of memory and 12 STI links. All model increments are connected via a redundant ring structure.

In order to deal with the large increase in system performance, major changes in the I/O infrastructure are necessary. z990 introduces four Logical Channel Subsystems (LCSSs). This permits up to 1024 CHPIDs to be available for the customer. Enhancements in the power structure will now allow a maximum of 1024 ESCON channels, 120 FICON Express channels, and 48 OSA-Express connections to the network. Connection of the I/O subsystem to the CEC subsystem may be done via 48 STI links, each having a capacity of 2 GigaBytes per second (GBps) (z900: 24 links with 1 GBps). Coupling improvements include the ICB-4, more than two times faster than an ICB-3.

z990 will support 30 LPARs. This doubles the number of available LPARs. Each Logical Channel SubSystem (LCSS) may support up to 15 LPARs.