IBM z14-ZR1 (3907) Specifications

The single frame IBM z14-ZR1 mainframe fits into the standard 19” data center rack, has 10% more capacity and a lower entry cost. The z14-ZR1 was designed with security built into every detail, performance at scale, and long-term value in mind. The z14-ZR1 runs at 4.5GHz processor frequency, offers up to 8TB per machine, has 40 partitions and has up to 30 cores. If your company is looking for the latest used IBM enterprise mainframe, Top Gun should be your number one choice.

Highlights

As businesses grow and evolve, their ability to simultaneously protect and capitalize on data is paramount to future success. Consumer, client, and partner expectations are growing. They demand security, transparency, and greater value in every interaction. The ability to rapidly derive actionable insights enables progressively smarter business decisions and improves user experiences, leading to new opportunities for consumers and clients alike.

The IBM z14 ZR1 runs at 4.5GHz processor frequency, offers up to 8 TB per machine, 40 partitions, and up to 30 cores that can be customer configured (versus 20 on z13s). z14 ZR1 also offers IBM Virtual Flash Memory (VFM), Dynamic Partition Manager (DPM), zHyperLink Express, enhanced computing for TKE and HMC, Integrated Coupling Adapter for Short Reach (ICA-SR) connectivity, Coupling Express LR for long reach coupling connectivity, and a design for pervasive encryption allowing you to encrypt many new data sets transparently.

To help businesses capitalize on new opportunities, IBM has taken the technologies introduced in the IBM z14 (z14) and reimagined them into a nimble new enterprise server, replacing prior systems such as z13s, zBC12, and z114. The z14 Model ZR1 delivers high reliability capabilities in a smaller, industry-standard frame, with a lower cost of entry, that can easily partner with other platforms in a cloud data center.

The key value propositions of the z14 Models M01 – M05 are just as relevant in the new Model ZR1, including pervasive encryption. In an increasingly intricate world of regulatory requirements and external threats, the security of client data and mission critical workloads is paramount. The z14 Model ZR1 can be the base for a securable, yet integrated cloud, taking advantage of features such as Central Processor Assist for Cryptographic Functions (CPACF), Crypto Express 6S for FIPS-4 certified encryption key management, Trusted Key Entry (TKE) systems, or enhanced applications of Secure Service Containers that can soon include client applications. Valuable data assets on the IBM ZB. can quickly be integrated for maximum data intelligence, actionable insights, and predictive behavior for both systems of records and systems of client engagement.

Incorporating feedback from close client collaboration, the z14 Model ZR1 is designed into an industry-standard 19-inch rack form factor that is easily planned and installed into your data center. For clients familiar with prior servers, this revised footprint allows the server to be installed in significantly less space than prior offerings, using just two average data center tiles. The Model ZR1 is also based on power distribution units (PDUs), creating an opportunity to utilize common data center power drops while maintaining the redundant power, cooling, and line cords that are intrinsic to high- reliability IBM Z offerings. For clients with 32 or fewer I/O cards, there is also an option to allow a portion of the frame to house other switches, storage, or server components with a 16U Reserved space feature. This reserved space creates an option for client flexibility to create a single-frame ecosystem. With the reduced footprint cost, installability into virtually any existing data center, and flexible offerings, the Model ZR1 is a great fit for more locations than ever before.

Clients can also now take advantage of a number of features to ease application integration. Creating a hybrid cloud has never been easier, with scalability across LPARs and virtual servers, especially via Dynamic Partition Manager and Secure Service Containers. Empower your application developers – even those with no IBM Z skills – to quickly exploit the rich value in transactional data with the rapid API development and deployment that is so common in Linux environments. For clients with significant IBM Z core applications, Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence (ADDI) assists developers in visualizing and adjusting application endpoints and handling. Those same IBM Z core application users may also significantly reduce development costs with the new Software Container Pricing for z/OS, which allows new workloads on specific addresses to be eligible for special development pricing and remain separate from production workload pricing.

With the IBM z14 Model ZR1 servers, you can rapidly develop and deliver high-quality services deployed on a trusted cloud infrastructure that is flexible, efficient, and resilient, and includes enhanced security features:

  • The use of pervasive encryption for most extended-format data sets can help address compliance requirements around encryption of data on disk and tape devices. Based on experience from IBM Blockchain leadership, extended Secure Service Container applications create an option for security within a Docker and Kubernetes based container environment requiring no application changes.
  • High-performance processors, large memory, and synchronous I/O to storage are designed to deliver significant performance improvements, driving faster user response times.
  • Scale is designed to help you manage more workloads at less cost with increases in capacity per core and increases in single-system capacity.
  • Developers and administrators, with no mainframe resources, can rapidly develop new services, as well as monitor and provision resources without the need for new specialized skills.
  • Trusted insight is built into everything you do with advanced cognitive and analytics processing.
  • Clients can build new cognitive and analytical applications by taking advantage of data natively created on IBM Z using industry- standard tools like Apache Spark.
  • Clients can help enhance the productivity of data scientists and improve time to value of machine learning (ML). Deploying ML on IBM Z gains the benefits of data gravity, high security, and IBM Z resiliency.
  • Integrated IBM Z data sources allow clients to capture new business value by leveraging insights from dark transactional data in their systems of insight.

The z14 Model ZR1 delivers high-reliability capabilities in an industry-standard footprint, with a low cost of enterprise-class entry. The Model ZR1 can easily partner with other platforms in a cloud data center, while supporting pervasive encryption technologies and speed and performance improvements over prior generations. The z14 Model ZR1 servers provide the perfect platform to drive business opportunities for the next generation of industry leaders.

Upgrade Path

The z14 ZR1 has an assigned machine type (MT) of 3907, which uniquely identifies the central processor complex (CPC). All z14 ZR1 use five, six, seven, eight, or nine processor unit cores in for the processor unit single chip modules (up to four). Spare processor units, system assist processors (SAPs), and one integrated firmware processor (IFP) are integral to the system and are present in the z14 ZR1.

Spare processor units are used to replace defective processor units and one spare processor unit (core) is always available on a z14 ZR1. In the rare event of a processor unit failure, the spare processor unit is immediately and transparently activated and assigned the characteristics of the failing processor unit.

On the z14 ZR1, concurrent upgrades are available for CPs, IFLs, ICFs, Z Integrated Information Processors (zIIPs), and SAPs. However, concurrent processor unit upgrades require that more processor units are physically installed, but not activated previously.

Diagram of an upgrade path for the z14 2907

Technical Overview

The 3907-ZR1 supports 64 to 8000 GB of memory, from 1 to 6 central processors, 3o total configurable cores, and up to 8 PCIe+ fanouts. The PCIe+ I/O drawers house up to 64 I/O cards in support of cryptography (Crypto Express6S), the storage area network (FICON Express16S+ and IBM zHyperLink Express), the Ethernet local area network (OSA-Express6S and 10GbE RoCE Express2), Coupling Express LR, and compression (zEDC Express).

The newest member of the IBM z14 product portfolio, the new z14 Model ZR1 delivers high-reliability, high-speed functions in a smaller, industry-standard frame, that easily partners with other platforms in a cloud data center. As part of the IBM Z portfolio, the z14 Model ZR1 provides a highly available platform that delivers differentiated value, designed to enable business growth, reduce cost, and protect existing investments.

High-performance encryption for a pervasive encryption strategy

  • IBM Z processor-based cryptography with the Central Processor Assist for Cryptographic Functions (CPACF).
  • z/OS data set encryption and z/OS Coupling Facility encryption to help create an envelope of protection.
  • Support for dm-crypt on Linux on Z transparent file and volume encryption using industry-unique CPACF protected keys.
  • Trusted Key Entry (TKE) 9.0 Licensed Internal Code (LIC).
  • Cryptographic performance with the Crypto Express6S (#0893).
  • IBM Secure Service Containers, soon to be enhanced via integration with IBM Cloud Private, designed such that IBM, client, or third-party Docker and Kubernetes based applications can be securely deployed and encrypted in their own partitions without application changes.

Speed and scalability

  • Economies of scale with next-generation simultaneous multithreading (SMT) for Linux and zIIP eligible workloads, new support for the I/O System Assist Processor (SAP), 2x AES performance over z13s, a True Random Number Generator with CPACF support, SHA3 support, and RSA/ECC acceleration.
  • Java8 SR5 performance support via Guarded Storage Facility with z/OS for reducing program pauses during Java garbage collection.
  • New instructions in Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) which are designed to give a performance boost for both traditional and new workloads.
  • FICON Express16S+ (#0427, 0428) which is designed with a boost in I/O rates and a reduction in single stream latency to help absorb large application and transaction spikes driven by large, unpredictable analytic and mobile workloads.
  • Improved compression ratio (using Huffman coding) and order- preserving compression for the on-chip compression coprocessor which results in fewer CPU cycles to enable further compression of data, improving memory, transfer, and disk efficiency.
  • 30 cores available for client configuration (versus 20 on z13s), with faster uniprocessor performance as compared to z13s.
  • Up to 8 terabytes (TB) of available Redundant Array of Independent Memory (RAIM) real memory per server to help improve transaction response times, lower CPU costs, simplify capacity planning, enlarge in-memory buffer pools, and ease deploying memory-intensive workloads.
  • 2x more on-chip cache per core, compared to z13s, to minimize memory waits while maximizing the throughput of concurrent workloads — perfectly optimized for data serving.
  • 10 GbE RoCE Express2 with 4x more virtual functions per adapter and a performance improvement.
  • Coupling Express LR (#0433), for long reach coupling connectivity, in addition to continued support of Integrated Coupling Adapter Short Reach (ICA-SR) (#0172). These adapters replace older-generation 12x and 1x InfiniBand HCA3-O coupling links.
  • IBM Virtual Flash Memory (#0614), the replacement for the Flash Express features (#0402, #0403), offering up to 2.0 TB of virtual flash memory for improved application availability and to handle paging workload spikes.
  • IBM zHyperLink Express (#0431), which uses a direct-connect short- distance link (zHyperLink) to deliver low-latency connectivity between z14 and FICON storage systems. Working in conjunction with a corresponding DS8000 Systems Storage zHyperLink feature and an exploiter such as DB2 12 with a PTF, zHyperLink Express delivers the next generation of I/O for IBM Z storage.

Simplified approaches

  • IBM Hardware Management Console (HMC) 2.14 with GUI updates to improve workspace and manage system time. New security features include Multifactor Authentication and a new HMC Mobile application for monitor and recover action controls.
  • IBM Dynamic Partition Manager enhancements which provide a consumable IBM Z experience, with visual representations of partitions and options for clear understanding of new and existing Linux on IBM Z, and z/VM partitions.
  • Optimized z/OS platform for IBM Open Data Analytics for z/OS, and portable analytics, such as IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator (IDAA), for integrating real-time data intelligence and operational decision making as transactional data is being created.
  • Container Pricing for z/OS that allows for development and testing of new workloads to be managed separately from production workload, thereby increasing access and predictability for new deployment activities.
  • Ongoing collaboration with a wide network of partners across the ecosystem to take advantage of opportunities like Docker on IBM Z.
  • Insight to your full portfolio using Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence (ADDI) to pinpoint opportunities for efficiency in existing code.

The performance advantage

IBM’s Large Systems Performance Reference (LSPR) method is designed to provide comprehensive z/Architecture processor capacity ratios for different configurations of Central Processors (CPs) across a wide variety of system control programs and workload environments. For ultimate flexibility in capacity, the z/Architecture processor capacity indicator is defined with up to 6 CPs, with 26 segment slices (A-Z notation), where segments run A01 – Z06.

In addition to the general information provided for z/OS 2.3, the LSPR also contains performance relationships for z/VM and Linux operating environments.

The capacity per processor engine of a z14 ZR1 (3907) processor is expected to provide approximately a 10% increase over that of a z13s (2965), with some variation, based on workload and configuration. The IFL and zIIP processors on the z14 ZR1 provide an optional z14 ZR1 multithreading technology capability; with the multithreading function enabled, the performance capacity of an IFL or zIIP is expected to typically be up to 25% higher than without the multithreading function enabled.

The LSPR contains the Internal Throughput Rate Ratios (ITRRs) for z14 ZR1 and the previous-generation IBM Z processor families based upon measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput that any user may experience will vary depending upon considerations such as the level of multiprogramming in the user’s job stream, the I/O configuration, the workload processed, and the LPAR configuration. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve throughput improvements equivalent to the performance estimates stated.

Next-generation availability

The z14 processor builds upon the Reliability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS) of the IBM Z family, with the following RAS improvements:

  • z14 Level 3 cache enhancements using powerful symbol ECC that now spreads cache data over multiple physical cache arrays. This enables the detection and correction of multibit errors, making the Level 3 cache more resilient and fault tolerant.
  • Preemptive DRAM marking added to main memory to isolate and recover failures more quickly.
  • Improved small array error handling in the processor cores.
  • Additional error thresholding to the processor core to isolate “sick but not dead” failure scenarios.
  • An increase in the number of “Resource Groups” (from 2 to 4) to reduce the impact of firmware updates and failures.

z14-ZR1 10-Core Chip Details

The z14 ZR1 PU chip shares the design with the z14 M0x PU chip and is an evolution of the z13s design. It includes the following features:

  • CMOS 14nm SOI technology
  • Pipeline enhancements, dynamic improved simultaneous multithreading (SMT), enhanced single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD), and redesigned, larger on-chip caches.

Each PU chip includes up to nine active cores (10 cores by design) that run at 4.5 GHz, which means that the cycle time is 0.222 ns. The PU SCMs come in five versions: 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 active cores.

The PU chip contains the following enhancements:

Schematic of the z14-ZR1 PU for Model 3807

 

Cache Improvements:
– New power efficient logical directory design
– 33% larger L1 I$ (128 KB), private
– 2x larger L2 D$ (4 MB), private
– 2x larger L3 cache with symbol ECC, shared

Pipeline Optimizations:
– Improved instruction delivery
– Faster branch wake-up
– Reduced execution latency
– Improved Operand store compare (OSC) avoidance
– Optimized second-generation SMT2

Inside the IBM z14-ZR1 3907

Internal View of the z14-ZR1 Mainframe

IBM z14-ZR1 3907 MIPS Chart

ProcessorActive CPUsEstimated MipsMSU
3907-A0118811
3907-B0119812
3907-C01111014
3907-D01113016
3907-E01115019
3907-A02216521
3907-F01117221
3907-B02218423
3907-G01119324
3907-C02220726
3907-H01121627
3907-A03324030
3907-D02224430
3907-I01124230
3907-B03326833
3907-J01127234
3907-E02228235
3907-C03330138
3907-K01130338
3907-A04431339
3907-F02232340
3907-L01134042
3907-B04434944
3907-D03335544
3907-G02236345
3907-A05538348
3907-M01138148
3907-C04439149
3907-E03341051
3907-H02240651
3907-B05542653
3907-N01142753
3907-A06645056
3907-I02245557
3907-D04446258
3907-F03347059
3907-C05547960
3907-O01147760
3907-B06650263
3907-J02251164
3907-G03352766
3907-E04453367
3907-P01153467
3907-C06656370
3907-D05556671
3907-K02257071
3907-H03359074
3907-Q01159775
3907-F04461277
3907-L02263980
3907-E05565382
3907-D06666583
3907-I03366183
3907-R01166783
3907-G04468686
3907-M02271690
3907-J03374393
3907-S01174693
3907-F05574994
3907-E06676896
3907-H04476896
3907-N022803100
3907-K033828104
3907-T011834104
3907-G055840105
3907-I044861108
3907-F066880110
3907-O022897112
3907-L033929116
3907-U011933117
3907-H055940118
3907-J044967121
3907-G066988123
3907-P0221004125
3907-M0331041130
3907-V0111043130
3907-I0551053132
3907-K0441078135
3907-H0661106138
3907-Q0221122140
3907-N0331166145
3907-W0111166145
3907-J0551184147
3907-L0441209150
3907-I0661239154
3907-R0221254156
3907-O0331303162
3907-X0111304162
3907-K0551319164
3907-M0441355168
3907-J0661392173
3907-S0221402175
3907-Y0111430178
3907-P0331459181
3907-L0551480184
3907-N0441519189
3907-K0661551193
3907-T0221568195
3907-Z0111570195
3907-Q0331631203
3907-M0551658206
3907-O0441696211
3907-L0661740216
3907-U0221754218
3907-R0331822225
3907-N0551858231
3907-P0441899235
3907-M0661950242
3907-V0221961243
3907-S0332038253
3907-O0552076258
3907-Q0442123263
3907-N0662186271
3907-W0222192272
3907-T0332278282
3907-P0552324288
3907-R0442372294
3907-O0662442303
3907-X0222452304
3907-U0332549316
3907-Q0552598322
3907-S0442653328
3907-Y0222688333
3907-P0662734339
3907-V0332849353
3907-R0552903360
3907-Z0222951365
3907-T0442966367
3907-Q0663056379
3907-W0333185395
3907-S0553246402
3907-U0443318411
3907-R0663414423
3907-X0333562442
3907-T0553629450
3907-V0443709459
3907-S0663819473
3907-Y0333907484
3907-U0554060504
3907-W0444147514
3907-T0664269529
3907-Z0334289531
3907-V0554539563
3907-X0444638575
3907-U0664776592
3907-W0555074629
3907-Y0445086631
3907-V0665339663
3907-Z0445583693
3907-X0555675705
3907-W0665969741
3907-Y0556223772
3907-X0666675828
3907-Z0556832848
3907-Y0667320909
3907-Z0668036998
IBM z14-ZR1 (IBM 3907) Maintenance

In the IBM world, engineers possessing the skills capable of the highest expertise are recognized as “top guns.” Top Gun is internationally recognized as a top performer for IBM mainframe maintenance and support for enterprise-critical hardware within the data center.  Top Gun maintenance support for IBM Z helps you avoid problems before they happen. Our highly skilled IBM Z engineers act as an extension of your IT staff, problems are resolved quickly, improving your system availability, and productivity.

Additional IBM Mainframe Specs
Model
IBM z15 (IBM 8651)
IBM z14-ZR1 (IBM 3907)
IBM z14 (IBM 3906)
IBM z13s (IBM 2965)
IBM z13 (IBM 2964)
IBM EC12 (IBM 2827)
IBM BC12 (IBM 2828)
IBM z196 (IBM 2817)
IBM z114 (IBM 2818)
IBM z10 BC (IBM 2098)
IBM z10 EC (IBM 2097)
IBM z9 BC (IBM 2096)
IBM z9 EC (IBM 2094)

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