IBM EC12 (IBM 2827) SPECS

A refurbished IBM EC12 could be the hardware your business needs to process massive amounts of data in a short amount of time. Whether you’re powering a cloud network, taking advantage of machine learning analytical capabilities or simply adding efficiency to your IT operations, a used IBM 2827 is a solid choice. Because your company’s reputation depends on it, this machine is built with powerful security features that protect your data.

IBM EC12 2827 End of Service Life

IBM EC12 (2827) Table of Contents

Highlights

A major market shift is occurring across the globe today. Clients are beginning to build up their use of social computing and mobile technologies as integral parts of their enterprise solutions, placing increased demands on data as they look for new ways to protect, analyze, and use data, while simultaneously reducing IT costs. The demand for smarter solutions that leverage data are stressing enterprises to achieve higher service levels and heightened levels of availability and performance, and to deliver more completely secured solutions, especially as they invest in new service delivery models like Cloud. The IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12)(TM) has up to 50% more total system capacity, availability and security enhancements, and a robust hybrid infrastructure, to offer an enterprise-class system designed for the needs of today’s smarter computing solutions. While maintaining IBM’s core workload strategies of data serving and transaction processing, the IBM zEnterprise EC12 is designed to do so much more. It is excellent as a scalable and secure data repository for the enterprise, it is ideally suited as a private enterprise cloud, and it is also a cost-effective solution for large-scale consolidation. With IBM zEnterprise EC12, DB2 for z/OS, and the IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator (IDAA) you can run your online transaction processing (OLTP) and data warehouse as one integrated workload in real time. The IBM zEnterprise EC12 includes a Central Processor Complex (CPC), the zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension (zBX) Model 003 with support for POWER7 and x86 blades and the IBM WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance XI50 for zEnterprise (DataPower XI50z), and the zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager (zManager) which provides System z governance and management to the infrastructure.

  • Improved total system capacity in a 120-core design (up to 101 cores are client-configurable)
    • Optimization and scale improvements starting at the core
    • Massive scalability for secure data serving and transaction processing and large-scale consolidation
    • Increased scalability with 60 available subcapacity settings
  • Hexa-core 5.5 GHz processor chips design with a boost in performance for all workloads
    • Second-generation out-of-order design
    • Larger cache sizes to optimize data serving environments
    • Data compression and cryptographic coprocessors on the chip
    • Transactional Execution Facility designed to offer increased scalability and parallelism to drive higher transaction throughput
    • Decimal-Floating-Point Zoned-Conversion Facility that can help to improve performance applications compiled with the new Enterprise PL/I compiler
  • Up to 3 terabytes (TB) of available real memory per server for growing application needs (with up to 1 TB real memory per LPAR)
    • Improved availability in the memory subsystem with Redundant Array of Independent Memory (RAIM)
  • Crypto Express4S cryptographic adapter
    • Support for the PCIe I/O drawer configuration
    • Support for digital signatures with new PKCS #11
    • Support for American Express EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) cards
  • IBM zAware cutting-edge pattern recognition analytics for fast insight into system health
  • New Flash Express adapter card designed to help improve availability and performance
  • Energy efficiencies in the data center
    • New non-raised floor option, offering flexible possibilities for the data center
    • Optional water cooling, providing the ability to cool systems with user-chilled water
    • Optional high-voltage DC power, which can help System z clients save on their power bills
    • Top exit power and I/O cabling designed to provide increased flexibility
  • Unified Resource Manager, enabling management and virtualization of heterogeneous workloads. Unified Resource Manager manages the deployment of heterogeneous hardware resources based on individual workload requirements by providing:
    • Performance management
    • Integrated private data network
    • Virtual server lifecycle management
    • Hypervisor management
    • Integrated operational controls
    • Management as System z firmware
  • Full upgradability to IBM zEnterprise EC12 from z196 and z10 EC, and full upgradability within the zEC12 family

Upgrade Path

Any zEC12 can be upgraded to another zEC12 hardware model. All upgrades to Models H20, H43, H66, and H89 are concurrent and all upgrades to HA1 are disruptive (that is, the system is unavailable during the upgrade). Any z196 or z10 EC model can be upgraded to any zEC12 model, which is also disruptive.

z196 upgrade to zEC12
When a z196 is upgraded to a zEC12, the z196 driver level must be at least 93. If a zBX is involved, the driver 93 must be at Bundle 27 or higher. When upgrading a z196 that controls a zBX Model 002 to a zEC12, the zBX is upgraded to a Model 003. That upgrade is disruptive.

Diagram of an IBM zEC12 Upgrade Path

Technical Overview

The IBM zEnterprise EC12 CPC is designed with improved scale, performance, availability, and security, making the IBM zEnterprise EC12 an ideal platform for cloud computing, running integrated OLTP and data warehousing, and deploying IBM’s smarter computing industry solutions. The new 120-core design delivers massive scale across all workloads and enables cost saving consolidation opportunities. The IBM zEnterprise EC12 is designed to be a worldwide leader as a fast and scalable enterprise system and is based on IBM’s newest hexa-core 5.5 GHz application-tuned out-of-order superscalar chip, delivering over 78,000 millions of instructions per second (MIPS) in a single zEC12 footprint. The new microprocessor design delivers a boost to performance for all workloads.

Several architectural facilities have been added to the hardware. IBM zEnterprise EC12 will be the first general-purpose large-scale enterprise server with a Transactional Execution Facility, designed to help eliminate software locking overhead that can impact performance. Transactional Execution will offer increased scalability and parallelism to drive higher transaction throughput. IBM’s Java Runtime Environment is planned to exploit the Transactional Execution Facility in an upcoming maintenance roll-up (see Statement of general direction). The XL C/C++ compiler is planned to provide hardware built-in functions to enable applications to use the Transactional Execution Facility with a PTF at general availability. In z/OS V1.13, the XL C/C++ support is intended to be used for development and testing. The IBM Enterprise PL/I compiler is planned to exploit the new Decimal-Floating-Point Zoned-Conversion Facility for increased efficiency to improve performance. The Enhanced-DAT2 facility will enable exploitation of new 2 GB page frames by Java and others, offering increased efficiency for large memory structures to improve performance. The new Runtime Instrumentation Facility is designed to provide managed runtimes and just-in-time compilers with enhanced feedback on application behavior, allowing for improved self-tuning. Java is planned to exploit a significant set of the new instructions available on IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12) servers. These changes to Java are designed to enhance array bounds checking, and help the system fetch data and instructions operate more efficiently (see Statement of general direction).

The IBM System z Advanced Workload Analysis Reporter (IBM zAware) is an integrated, self-learning, analytics solution that helps identify unusual behaviors of workloads running on z/OS LPARs. IBM zAware is intended to help you to accelerate problem determination and improve service levels. It uses machine learning to help your organization gain visibility into system behavior, helping you to optimize service, respond to problems quicker, and increase availability.

Cryptographic hardware on the IBM zEnterprise EC12 can help to protect data privacy and sensitive custom applications. Today we are introducing the Crypto Express4S card, IBM’s latest tamper-resistant cryptographic coprocessor. The card is suited to applications requiring high-speed security-sensitive cryptographic operations for data encryption and digital signing, and secure management and use of cryptographic keys.

With the zBX infrastructure, IBM zEnterprise EC12 can support a multi-platform environment having mainframe, UNIX, and x86 technologies in a single system. The zBX can also support the IBM WebSphere DataPower Integration Appliance XI50 for zEnterprise which can be used to help simplify, govern, secure, and integrate XML and IT services by providing connectivity, gateway functions, data transformation, protocol bridging, and intelligent load distribution. Unified Resource Manager brings System z governance to the distributed side, transforming the way resources are managed and deployed. It provides infrastructure awareness to optimize the system resources in accordance with the policies assigned to that particular workload.

The latest member of the zEnterprise family is the IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12),(TM) which is designed to deliver new levels of performance and capacity for large-scale consolidation and growth, support for the next generation of digital signature security support, cutting-edge pattern recognition analytics for fast insight into system health, and new environmental capabilities such as the non-raised floor option on radiator-based air-cooled systems. Well-integrated designs for the IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12) and the z/OS operating system yield immediate exploitation benefits, with support for hardware features including Flash Express, hardware transactional memory, IBM zAware, and encryption technologies. Other System z-based operating systems including Linux on System z, z/VM, z/VSE, and z/TPF also provide immediate support for and exploitation of a number of hardware features. In addition, zEC12 supports heterogeneous platform requirements with the IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter(R) Extension (zBX) Model 003 and IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager for extending management strengths to other systems and workloads running on AIX(R) on POWER7(R), Linux on IBM System x(R), and Microsoft Windows on IBM System x servers.

The IBM zEnterprise EC12 is designed to provide:

  • Up to 25% faster uniprocessor performance as compared to z196
  • Up to 50% system capacity performance improvement over z196 80-way
  • 101 cores to configure (versus 80 on z196)
  • 161 capacity settings (versus 125 on z196)
  • Up to 3 TB RAIM memory
  • Radiator-based air-cooled system design
  • z/Architecture enhancements designed to enable performance improvements in Linux, Java, and DB2
  • Enhanced cache design
  • zBX Model 003 upgradeable from zBX Model 002
  • IBM zAware for improved problem determination
  • OSA-Express4S 1000BASE-T included in PCIe Gen2 I/O infrastructure
  • 8 GBps host bus supporting PCIe Gen2 I/O infrastructure
  • Crypto Express4S with FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certification and PKCS #11 support for digital signatures
  • Flash Express to handle paging workload spikes and improve availability
  • Non-raised floor (NRF) option for flexibility in data center integration
  • Continuation of optional water cooling and DC power
  • Optional overhead power and overhead cabling
  • Hypervisor updates
  • Storage manager updates
  • The proprietary service state package

zEC12 6-Core Chip Details

The zEC12 PU chip is an evolution of the z196 core design. It uses CMOS 13S technology, out-of-order instruction processing, higher clock frequency, and redesigned and larger caches. Compute-intensive workloads can achieve more performance improvements through compiler enhancements, and larger caches can improve system performance on many production workloads.

Each PU chip has up to six active cores that run at 5.5 GHz, which means that the cycle time is slightly shorter than 0.18 ns. There are six PU chips on each

Diagram of the processor in the zEC12 2827MCM. The PU chips come in three versions: four, five, and six active cores. For models H20, H43, H66, and H89, the processor units in the MCM in each book are implemented with 27 active cores per MCM. This configuration means that model H20 has 27, model H43 has 54, model H66 has 81, and model H89 has 108 active cores. Model HA1 has 30 active cores per MCM. This configuration means that there are 120 active cores on model HA1.

Each PU chip has 2.75 billion transistors. Each one of the six cores has its own L1 cache with 64 KB for instructions and 96 KB for data. Next to each core is its private L2 cache, with 1 MB for instructions and 1 MB for data. Each one of the six cores has one L3 cache, with 48 MB. This 48 MB L3 cache is a store-in shared cache across all cores in the PU chip. It has 192 x 512 KB eDRAM macros, dual address-sliced and dual store pipe support, an integrated on-chip coherency anager, cache, and cross-bar switch. The L3 directory filters queries from the local L4. Both L3 slices can deliver up to 160 GBps bandwidth to each core simultaneously. The L3 cache interconnects the six cores, GX I/O buses, and memory controllers (MCs) with storage control (SC) chips.

Inside the IBM zEC12 2827

Inside Diagram of the model 2827 IBM zEC12

IBM zEC12 2827 MIPS Chart

SystemPlatformModelEstimated MIPSMSUActive CPUsIBM MMCFirst Available
EC122827700*NANA$6,200 3Q 12
EC122827401240301$6,200 3Q 12
EC122827402459582$6,600 3Q 12
EC122827501631801$7,800 3Q 12
EC122827403670853$8,200 3Q 12
EC1228274048761104$10,400 3Q 12
EC1228276019471191$11,200 3Q 12
EC12282740510781355$12,500 3Q 12
EC12282750211991502$13,700 3Q 12
EC12282740612761606$14,500 3Q 12
EC12282740714701837$16,600 3Q 12
EC12282770115141881$17,000 3Q 12
EC12282740816612068$18,600 3Q 12
EC12282750317512173$19,500 3Q 12
EC12282760217902222$20,000 3Q 12
EC12282740918482299$20,600 3Q 12
EC122827410203225110$22,600 3Q 12
EC122827411221227311$24,500 3Q 12
EC12282750422862834$25,300 3Q 12
EC122827412238929512$26,400 3Q 12
EC122827413256331713$28,200 3Q 12
EC12282760326093223$28,700 3Q 12
EC122827414273433814$30,100 3Q 12
EC12282750528093475$30,900 3Q 12
EC12282770228533522$31,300 3Q 12
EC122827415290135815$31,800 3Q 12
EC122827416306537816$33,400 3Q 12
EC122827417322739817$35,000 3Q 12
EC12282750633204096$35,900 3Q 12
EC122827418338541718$36,600 3Q 12
EC12282760434034194$36,700 3Q 12
EC122827419354043619$38,000 3Q 12
EC122827420369345520$39,500 3Q 12
EC12282750738204707$40,700 3Q 12
EC12282770341515113$43,300 3Q 12
EC12282760541785145$43,400 3Q 12
EC12282750843085308$43,900 3Q 12
EC12282750947845889$46,800 3Q 12
EC12282760649346066$47,900 3Q 12
EC122827510525064410$49,600 3Q 12
EC12282770454096644$50,500 3Q 12
EC12282760756706957$51,700 3Q 12
EC122827511570569911$51,800 3Q 12
EC122827512615075412$54,300 3Q 12
EC12282760863897838$55,800 3Q 12
EC122827513658480813$56,900 3Q 12
EC12282770566288135$57,100 3Q 12
EC122827514700885914$58,900 3Q 12
EC12282760970898699$59,200 3Q 12
EC122827515742391015$60,500 3Q 12
EC122827610777295210$61,500 3Q 12
EC12282770678099576$61,600 3Q 12
EC122827516782895916$61,700 3Q 12
EC1228275178224100617$62,600 3Q 12
EC1228276118437103111$63,100 3Q 12
EC1228275188610105218$63,500 3Q 12
EC122827707895410927$64,200 3Q 12
EC1228275198988109619$64,300 3Q 12
EC1228276129086110812$64,600 3Q 12
EC1228275209357114020$65,300 3Q 12
EC1228276139719118413$66,100 3Q 12
EC1228277081006312248$66,900 3Q 12
EC12282761410336125614$67,300 3Q 12
EC12282761510938132715$68,300 3Q 12
EC1228277091113713509$68,700 3Q 12
EC12282761611524139716$69,200 3Q 12
EC12282761712096146417$69,400 3Q 12
EC12282771012179147310$69,700 3Q 12
EC12282761812654153018$70,400 3Q 12
EC12282771113188159311$71,800 3Q 12
EC12282761913197159419$71,800 3Q 12
EC12282762013728165620$72,900 3Q 12
EC12282771214166170912$74,000 3Q 12
EC12282771315126182213$76,000 3Q 12
EC12282771416069193414$77,700 3Q 12
EC12282771516994204315$79,100 3Q 12
EC12282771617904214916$80,800 3Q 12
EC12282771718797225417$82,900 3Q 12
EC12282771819673235918$86,200 3Q 12
EC12282771920534246219$88,900 3Q 12
EC12282772021380256420$91,200 3Q 12
EC12282772122222266121$99,100 3Q 12
EC12282772223061275522$102,000 3Q 12
EC12282772323896284823$105,100 3Q 12
EC12282772424728294024$108,000 3Q 12
EC12282772525557303225$110,700 3Q 12
EC12282772626382312226$113,700 3Q 12
EC12282772727205321227$116,200 3Q 12
EC12282772828023330128$119,100 3Q 12
EC12282772928839338929$121,600 3Q 12
EC12282773029651348030$124,000 3Q 12
EC12282773130460357131$126,700 3Q 12
EC12282773231266366532$129,500 3Q 12
EC12282773332069376033$132,200 3Q 12
EC12282773432868385334$134,900 3Q 12
EC12282773533664394735$137,500 3Q 12
EC12282773634457404036$140,100 3Q 12
EC12282773735247413237$142,700 3Q 12
EC12282773836034422438$145,300 3Q 12
EC12282773936817431639$147,800 3Q 12
EC12282774037598440840$150,300 3Q 12
EC12282774138375449941$152,700 3Q 12
EC12282774239149459042$155,100 3Q 12
EC12282774339920468043$157,500 3Q 12
EC12282774440687477044$165,500 3Q 12
EC12282774541451485945$167,800 3Q 12
EC12282774642210494846$170,100 3Q 12
EC12282774742966503747$172,300 3Q 12
EC12282774843718512548$174,500 3Q 12
EC12282774944466521349$176,600 3Q 12
EC12282775045211530050$178,700 3Q 12
EC12282775145951538751$180,800 3Q 12
EC12282775246688547352$182,800 3Q 12
EC12282775347422555953$184,700 3Q 12
EC12282775448151564654$186,600 3Q 12
EC12282775548877573155$188,400 3Q 12
EC12282775649600581756$190,100 3Q 12
EC12282775750319590157$191,800 3Q 12
EC12282775851034598658$193,300 3Q 12
EC12282775951745606959$194,800 3Q 12
EC12282776052454615260$196,700 3Q 12
EC12282776153158623361$198,600 3Q 12
EC12282776253859631462$200,400 3Q 12
EC12282776354557639663$202,300 3Q 12
EC12282776455251647764$204,000 3Q 12
EC12282776555941655865$205,800 3Q 12
EC12282776656628663966$207,600 3Q 12
EC12282776757312671967$213,800 3Q 12
EC12282776857992679968$215,500 3Q 12
EC12282776958669687869$217,200 3Q 12
EC12282777059342695770$218,800 3Q 12
EC12282777160013703671$220,400 3Q 12
EC12282777260679711472$222,000 3Q 12
EC12282777361343719173$223,600 3Q 12
EC12282777462003726974$225,100 3Q 12
EC12282777562660734675$226,600 3Q 12
EC12282777663313742276$228,100 3Q 12
EC12282777763963749977$229,500 3Q 12
EC12282777864610757478$230,900 3Q 12
EC12282777965254765079$232,300 3Q 12
EC12282778065895772580$233,700 3Q 12
EC12282778166532780081$235,100 3Q 12
EC12282778267166787482$236,400 3Q 12
EC12282778367797794883$237,700 3Q 12
EC12282778468425802284$239,000 3Q 12
EC12282778569049809585$240,200 3Q 12
EC12282778669671816886$241,400 3Q 12
EC12282778770289824087$242,600 3Q 12
EC12282778870905831288$243,800 3Q 12
EC12282778971517838489$245,000 3Q 12
EC12282779072124845590$246,100 3Q 12
EC12282779172724852691$247,200 3Q 12
EC12282779273319859592$248,200 3Q 12
EC12282779373909866593$249,300 3Q 12
EC12282779474492873394$250,200 3Q 12
EC12282779575070880195$251,200 3Q 12
EC12282779675643886896$252,100 3Q 12
EC12282779776210893497$253,000 3Q 12
EC12282779876772900098$253,900 3Q 12
EC12282779977329906699$254,800 3Q 12
EC1228277A0778809130100$255,600 3Q 12
EC1228277A1784269194101$256,400 3Q 12
IBM EC12 (IBM 2827) 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 Z 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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