IBM has introduced the z17, its newest mainframe system, designed for mission-critical business transactions with advanced security capabilities enhanced with AI. The system is based on the Telum II processor that offers both 70% higher general-purpose performance over its predecessor as well as 50% improved AI capabilities. For those who need even higher AI performance, IBM offers to install additional Spyre accelerators.
IBM's Telum II processor is the heart of the company's new z17 mainframe. The Telum II CPU features eight advanced cores operating at 5.5 GHz, featuring enhanced branch prediction, store writeback, and address translation. The chip is equipped with 36MB of L2 cache, a 40% increase compared to the earlier version. It offers support for virtual L3 and L4 cache levels, expanding available cache to 360 MB and 2.88 GB, respectively. Additionally, Telum II integrates a data processing unit (DPU) to accelerate transactional workloads, which the company says increases overall system responsiveness. The chip is manufactured using Samsung’s 5HPP fabrication process and contains 43 billion transistors.
However, the Telum II does not only boast enhanced performance. A central element of this processor is its upgraded AI unit, which delivers four times the compute capability of the previous generation, reaching 24 trillion operations per second with INT8 data precision. Perhaps, 24 TOPS wasn't very impressive. However, the NPU is designed for mission-critical time-sensitive application that supports ensemble AI methods (traditional machine learning with a large-language model) to detect suspicious activities and fraud attempts.
It should be noted that every AI unit within a processor drawer can accept tasks from any of the CPU cores. This ensures even distribution of processing demands and enables the full use of the available 192 trillion operations per second per drawer when all accelerators are active.
IBM understands that some workloads will require more AI performance. Hence, alongside its Telum II, IBM unveiled the Spyre AI accelerator card with a PCIe interface. This 26-billion transistor processor packs 32 AI cores and features an architecture that closely resembles that of the AI accelerator architecture found in Telum II and, therefore, can be used to dynamically expand AI capabilities and performance of z17 drawers.
"The industry is quickly learning that AI will only be as valuable as the infrastructure it runs on," said Ross Mauri, general manager of IBM Z and LinuxONE, IBM. "With z17, we are bringing AI to the core of the enterprise with the software, processing power, and storage to make AI operational quickly. Additionally, organizations can put their vast, untapped stores of enterprise data to work with AI in a secured, cost-effective way."
To support AI workloads at the system level, IBM intends to introduce its z/OS 3.2 in Q3 2025, an updated version of its mainframe operating system. The new OS is designed to work with hardware acceleration and supports NoSQL and hybrid cloud data.
Traditionally, for IBM's z mainframes, the new z17 features robust security capabilities, including a new tool called IBM Vault, originally developed by HashiCorp to handle credentials, keys, and tokens across hybrid environments.
The system also includes hardware-level support for data classification and anomaly detection using the inference capabilities of the Telum II CPU.
As for storage, IBM's z17 will use the company's IBM DS8000 Gen10 system, which is designed to support high-speed transactions, availability, and scalability for mission-critical operations.
The IBM z17 will be available starting June 18, 2025, with the Spyre Accelerator arriving later in the year.
