IBM Reveals Next-Generation POWER10 Processor

IBM revealed the next generation of its POWER central processing unit (CPU) family: IBM POWER10. Designed to offer a platform to meet the unique needs of enterprise hybrid cloud computing, the processor uses a design focused on energy efficiency and performance in a 7nm form factor with an expected improvement of up to 3x greater processor energy efficiency, workload capacity, and container density than the POWER9 processor.

Designed over five years with hundreds of new and pending patents, the new processor is an important evolution in IBM's roadmap for POWER. Systems taking advantage of POWER10 are expected to be available in the second half of 2021. New processor has support for Multi-Petabyte Memory Clusters with a new technology called Memory Inception, designed to improve cloud capacity and economics for memory-intensive workloads, as well as large-model AI inference.

New Hardware-Enabled Security Capabilities including transparent memory encryption are designed to support end-to-end security. New Processor Core Architectures  with an embedded Matrix Math Accelerator which is extrapolated to provide 10x, 15x and 20x faster AI inference for FP32, BFloat16 and INT8 calculations per socket respectively than the POWER9 processor.

"Enterprise-grade hybrid clouds require a robust on-premises and off-site architecture inclusive of hardware and co-optimized software," said Stephen Leonard, GM of IBM Cognitive Systems. "With IBM POWER10 we've designed the premier processor for enterprise hybrid cloud, delivering the performance and security that clients expect from IBM. With our stated goal of making Red Hat OpenShift the default choice for hybrid cloud, IBM POWER10 brings hardware-based capacity and security enhancements for containers to the IT infrastructure level.