IBM is releasing the newest model of its mainframe {hardware} that features new updates meant to speed up AI adoption.
The {hardware} and consulting firm on Monday introduced IBM z17, the newest model of its mainframe laptop {hardware}. This totally encrypted mainframe is powered by an IBM Telum II processor and is designed for greater than 250 AI use circumstances, the corporate says, together with AI brokers and generative AI.
Mainframes would possibly seem to be outdated hat, however they’re utilized by 71% of Fortune 500 firms at the moment, in response to one supply. In 2024, the mainframe market was value an estimated $5.three billion, per consulting agency Market Research Future.
The z17 can course of 450 billion inference operations in a day, a 50% enhance over its predecessor, the IBM z16, which was launched in 2022 and ran on the corporate’s authentic Tellum processor. The system is designed to have the ability to totally combine with different {hardware}, software program, and open-source instruments.
Tina Tarquinio, VP of product administration and design for IBM Z, instructed TechCrunch that this mainframe improve has been within the works for 5 years — effectively earlier than the present AI frenzy that began with the discharge of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022.
IBM spent greater than 2,000 analysis hours getting suggestions from over 100 prospects because it constructed the z17, Tarquinio mentioned. She thinks it’s attention-grabbing to see that, now, 5 years later, the suggestions they bought aligned with the place the market ended up heading.
“It has been wild knowing that we’re introducing an AI accelerator, and then seeing, especially in the later half of 2022, all of the changes in the industry regarding AI,” Tarquinio instructed TechCrunch. “It’s been really exciting. I think the biggest point has been [that] we don’t know what we don’t know about what’s coming, right? So the possibilities are really unlimited in terms of what AI can help us do.”
The z17 is about as much as adapt and accommodate the place the AI market heads, Tarquinio mentioned. The mainframe will assist 48 IBM Spyre AI accelerator chips upon launch, with the plan to carry that quantity as much as 96 inside 12 months.
“We are purposely building in headroom,” Tarquinio mentioned. “We’re purposely building in AI agility. So as new models are introduced, [we’re] making sure that we’ve built in the headroom for bigger, larger models — models that maybe need more local memory to talk to each other. We’ve built in that because we know it’s really the approach that will change, right? The new models will come and go.”
Tarquinio mentioned that one of many highlights of this newest {hardware} — though she joked it was like being requested to select her favourite little one — is that the z17 is extra energy-efficient than its predecessor and supposedly rivals, too.
“On-chip, we’re increasing the AI acceleration by seven and a half times, but that’s five and a half times less energy than you would need to do, like, multi-model on another type of accelerator or platform in the industry,” Tarquinio mentioned.
The z17 mainframes will turn into usually obtainable on June 8.
