IBM System/38 delivered

48-bit

Featured 48-bit addressing and a novel integrated database system

AS/400

Its architecture served as the basis for the AS/400 

S/38

AS/400 introduced 

The Technology Independent Machine Interface (TIMI),
which allows application programs to take advantage of hardware and software advances without recompilation, was a key feature 
Early systems were based on a
48-bit CISC instruction set architecture,
which was originally developed for the S/38 
AS/400

eServer iSeries debuted

IBM rebranded the server line to eServer

The eServer iSeries was built on the POWER4

The eServer pSeries, running AIX, was also introduced

This was the first time the same processors were used in both server lines

eServer i5 on POWER 5 unveiled

iSeries is rebranded to i5

The OS is rebranded to i5/OS

The POWER5 implements simultaneous multithreading (SMT), where two threads are executed simultaneously

System i rebranded

Final rebrand before the System i and System p servers merged in 2008

POWER6 chip entered the market

Dual-core processor

Each core is capable of two-way simultaneous multithreading (SMT)

Maximized processor frequency, achieving 5 GHz

 

Power Systems server line debuted

IBM officially merged the System i and System p lines of servers

i5/OS is rebranded to IBM i

Power Systems 2008

POWER7 introduced

Superscalar multicore architecture

Focused on power efficiency through multiple cores and SMT

Featured up to 8 cores with 4 threads per core for a total capacity of 32 simultaneous threads

POWER8 debuted

Designed to be a massively multithreaded chip

Each core could handle 8 hardware threads simultaneously, for a total of 96 threads executed simultaneously on a 12-core chip

On- and off-chip eDRAM caches and on-chip memory controllers enable very high bandwidth to memory and system I/O

2X to 3X performance improvements over POWER7

Power Systems 2008

POWER9 unveiled

12- and 24-core versions for scale out and scale up applications

Summit, the fifth fastest supercomputer (based on the Top500 list as of November 2022), is based on POWER9, while also using NVIDIA Tesla GPUs as accelerators

Power10 debuted

15 cores

Focus is on AI workloads

Higher performance per watt and better I/O architectures

2023

The 35th anniversary of IBM i

Celebrating 35 years of business computing history

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