IBM has launched LinuxOne Emperor 4, the next generation of their Linux-centric mainframe, with claims of improved sustainability and lower energy usage.
The LinuxOne Emperor 4 is built to support Linux operating systems whereas the z16 mainframe is geared for IBM’s z/OS in an effort to capture a sizable piece of the Linux market.
IBM’s latest mainframe can accommodate as much as 40 terabytes of RAIM memory and 32 Telum CPUs. As an added bonus, the Emperor 4 boasts “seven nines” of availability, which translates to approximately three seconds of downtime every year.
LinuxOne Emperor 4
Citibank uses IBM’s LinuxOne mainframes with the MongoDB database, which is part of a growing trend in the financial services industry: the usage of mainframes for Linux distros.
New versions show that IBM is concerned about rising ecological demands. The Emperor 4 “can lower energy usage by 75%, space by 50%, and the CO2e footprint by roughly 850 metric tonnes annually,” according to the product description.
Consistent with IBM’s findings, which indicate that over half of the CEOs who participated ranked sustainability as either their top priority or one of their largest difficulties, the company has publicly committed to developing more environmentally friendly goods.
The inclusion of AI inference should also have the effect of decreasing latency.
On September 14, 2022, IBM plans to release the LinuxOne Emperor 4, with lower and higher tier versions following in the first half of 2023.