A Tour Inside the IBM Z17

Summary

Welcome to a photo-driven tour of the IBM z17. I've scoured the image library to pull dig deep inside these machines that most people don't get an opportunity to see inside, and I'll share some of the specifications gleaned from the announcement and related Redbooks. On April 8th 2025 IBM announced the IBM z17 at the new One Madison Avenue headquarters. The fanfare of that event was followed by an IBM Z Day Special Edition which gave participants a deep look inside the new system hardware, along with the latest software innovations that will pair with it, including real world use cases by clients and partners. Replays are now available, and if you're reading this post and are particularly interested in hardware the "Innovation up close: A sneak peak INSIDE a next generation mainframe" session will be of particular interest to you, plus it's a real delight to watch. But on with the blog post! Fitting into a 19" rack space just like its predecessor, the IBM z16, the system already has the ability to fit into a familiar spot in the data center. The z17 features configurations spanning 1 to 4 frames. Inside the 4-frame version you can have up to give 4 CPC drawers and 12 I/O drawers, and up to two RCAs (Radiator Cooling Assembly). (Source: IBM z17 Technical Guide) I was also impressed to learn that memory in a fully loaded system maxes out at 64T, up from 40T in its predecessor, which is quite the jump. At the heart of the machine is the new IBM Telum II processor. Telum II wafer, being held by yours truly! I had the pleasure of attending Hot Chips back in August of 2024 where Chris Berry announced the features of this new processor, which includes: A new AI accelerator with 4x the available compute power of the one included with the original IBM Telum processor A new built-in low-latency data processing unit (DPU) for accelerated I/O 8 high-performance cores running at 5.5GHz 40% increase in on-chip cache capacity over Telum (Source: IBM z17 Technical Guide) One thing ...