They would have to be IBM sticks so the IBM serial number etc. gets recorded
by the system.
I'm guessing what they really mean by that "regular DDR4" memory is the P8
memory would work with P9 when it's announced.
You can if you dig enough get back to the manufactures part number on the
memory, order that and it will work, but it eliminates all of your IBM
support contracts if you do that. Might even bust a term/condition or two.
--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Jonathan Wilson
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2016 9:56 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: DDR4 was Re: 2017 planning and budgeting - Power9 Gets Ready To
Roll In Systems In 2017
On Tue, 2016-08-30 at 19:49 +0000, Steinmetz, Paul wrote:
2017 planning and budgeting.
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh082916-story01.html
An interesting read, which raises a "thats interesting, how" question in my
mind.
I notice it says that it will accept "regular DDR4 memory sticks"... I'm
going to assume that it means it will accept the EEC version, and not the
"PC" kind.
This raises 3 kind of interrelated questions in my mind (please note I'm a
non-hardware guy and its been years since I had some knowledge and these
questions are pure curiosity rather than "purchasing" based).
The first is, can you just stick any old manufacturers ram into an IBM/I
power 9 box or does it have to be "special" ram when its used in/for an
IBM/I specifically?
Question 2, the reason I wonder about "special" ram for IBM/I is due to the
way the old "400", if I remember correctly, borrowed unused bits in the EEC
for special tags (tags active "IBM/I" mode) so my question is using "bog
standard" memory is it still possible to access these bits within the EEC
via the physical DDR4 hardware interface? (1)
Question 3, assuming "bog standard" ram works ok with IBM/I does the amount
of ram affect licensing/pricing in the same way that, if I remember
correctly, things such as cores/TPW/disk used to. So is it possible to just
go out and buy loads of large ram modules to upgrade a box or does it have
licence implications (2)
(1) For some reason I always assumed that the EEC would be done "in the ram"
and would just throw a bit flag style error... but I guess its actually done
with a mix of the ram, the controller/interface, and processor as a
"PC"/Intel requires both a capable processor (Zeon, if my memory serves) and
a capable MB chipset (non-consumer).
(2) I seem to recall that a whole host of different things ramped up the
cost of licensing the "OS/400" back in the day, although I don't recall what
they were specifically. I also recall, dimly, that IBM had a large price
premium, although everywhere I worked always preferred the premium over
third party compatibles even down to the twinax displays. (I still miss
using a genuine IBM 5250 keyboard over all the many and varied "PC"
keyboards I've used... nothing compares to the positivity and movement of
the keys - they were nearly indestructible as well!)
--
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