IBM's new servers are aimed at AI tasks

IBM has launched a new range of Linux-based servers which have been specifically engineered for high performance in tasks related to artificial intelligence, deep learning and advanced analytics – with a central mission to increase data centre efficiency. Early tests with Tencent reveal a threefold performance increase, even at 2/3rds deployment. The perhaps inelegantly named IBM Power Systems S822LC for High Performance Computing represents a collaboration with Nvidia, with the latter's NVLink high-speed interconnect facilitating a far greater CPU/GPU throughput than is currently possible over a PCIe bus. The servers have been developed in collaboration with the OpenPower Foundation (OPF), which was set up in 2013 as an accelerator for innovation of custom data centre systems, with a particular remit for workload acceleration via GPU, FPGA or advanced I/O, as well as platform optimisation for SW appliances and advanced hardware technology exploitation. IBM conducted preliminary tests on the new OpenPOWER servers in China with Tencent and was able to run workloads three times faster than on its previous x86-based infrastructure even whilst running a third fewer total number of servers.