IBM Power 770 9117-MMC 2x 16C Power7 3.3GHz 6x 2.5 4U Server

IBM Power 770 (Type 9117-MMC) Technical Specifications

The IBM Power 770 (9117-MMC) is a high-end, modular enterprise server powered by 45nm POWER7 processors. Built on a flexible multi-enclosure building-block architecture, the 9117-MMC scales from 1 to 4 Central Electronics Complex (CEC) enclosures (4U to 16U), supporting up to 64 POWER7 cores and up to 4 TB of physical DDR3 memory. It is engineered for mission-critical enterprise workloads, large-scale database consolidation, and high-density virtualization requiring mainframe-inspired RAS (Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability) features.

System Summary & Architecture Specifications

Specification Category	Configuration / Feature Details
Machine Type / Model	IBM Power Systems 9117-MMC
Processor Architecture	64-bit IBM POWER7 Processors (45nm CMOS technology)
System Architecture	Modular Building Block (1 to 4 CEC Enclosures)
Form Factor	4U per CEC enclosure (16U maximum for a 4-enclosure rack system)
Core Configurations	16-core to 64-core configurations (1 processor card per CEC enclosure)
Processor Clock Speeds	3.1 GHz (16-core) or 3.5 GHz / 3.3 GHz (12-core / 16-core options, with TurboCore boost up to 3.72 GHz)
Cache Architecture	L1: 32KB I / 32KB D per core L2: 250KB per core L3: 4MB eDRAM per core (up to 256MB total embedded L3 cache)
Memory Architecture	DDR3 ECC Registered Memory (up to 1066 MHz)
Max Physical RAM	Up to 1 TB per enclosure / Up to 4 TB total system memory across 64 DIMM slots
Virtualization & Mirroring	PowerVM Enterprise Edition, Active Memory Expansion (AME), Active Memory Mirroring (AMM)
Internal Drive Bays	Up to 6x SFF (2.5″) SAS HDD/SSD bays per CEC enclosure (24 SFF bays max)
Media Bays	1x Slimline SATA media bay per enclosure

Detailed Subsystem Architecture

1. Modular Building Block Architecture & Processors

• Enclosure Topology: Scalable from 1 to 4 CEC enclosures interconnected via high-speed 12X system SMP fabric loops.

• Processor Cards: Each 4U CEC enclosure houses 1 processor card containing two Single Chip Modules (SCMs).

• Processor Card Options:

  • 12-core 3.5 GHz POWER7 Card (#4980)

  • 16-core 3.1 GHz POWER7 Card (#4981)

  • 16-core 3.3 GHz POWER7 Card (#4983)

• Capacity on Demand (CoD): Supports Processor and Memory Capacity on Demand (Processor CUoD, Utility CoD, and Capacity BackUp).

2. Memory Subsystem & Reliability Features

• DIMM Density: 16 DDR3 DIMM slots per processor card / CEC enclosure (up to 64 DIMM slots across 4 enclosures).

• Supported Feature Modules: 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 feature cards.

• Active Memory Expansion (AME): Hardware-assisted memory compression enables up to 100% effective memory expansion.

• Active Memory Mirroring (AMM): Dual-channel hardware mirroring for the hypervisor memory space to prevent system outages from uncorrectable memory errors.

3. Storage & SAS Backplane

• Internal Bays: 6 hot-swappable 2.5″ SFF SAS drive bays per CEC enclosure.

• Supported Storage: Enterprise 10K/15K RPM SAS hard drives and high-end Enterprise SAS SSDs.

• Disk Expansion: External expansion drawers supported via PCIe SAS RAID controllers (e.g., EXP24S #5887).

4. I/O Expansion Slots & Networking

• CEC Enclosure Native Slots:

  • 6x PCIe Gen2 x8 expansion slots per enclosure (up to 24 PCIe slots natively across 4 enclosures).

  • 2x GX++ slots per enclosure for high-bandwidth 12X I/O expansion drawers.

• Maximum System Expansion: Up to 184 PCIe Gen2 slots utilizing 12X PCIe I/O expansion drawers (#5802 / #5877).

• Integrated Multifunction Networking (IVE):

  • Quad-port 1 GbE Integrated Virtual Ethernet Card.

  • Dual-port 10 GbE (Optical/Copper) + Dual-port 1 GbE Integrated Virtual Ethernet Card.

5. Operating System & Virtualization Support

• IBM AIX: AIX 6.1 (TL7 or later), AIX 7.1 (TL1 or later), AIX 5.3 (in compatibility mode).

• IBM i: IBM i 6.1.1, IBM i 7.1 (TR3 or later).

• Linux on Power: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 6.1 / RHEL 5.7 or later), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES 11 SP2 or later).

• Virtualization Density: Up to 160 logical partitions (LPARs) per enclosure, expandable up to 640 LPARs per full system via PowerVM Enterprise Edition.

6. Physical, Electrical & Environmental Specifications

• Dimensions (Per 4U CEC Enclosure):

  • Height: 174 mm (6.85 in / 4 EIA Units)

  • Width: 483 mm (19.0 in) standard 19-inch rack-mount

  • Depth: 864 mm (34.0 in)

  • Weight: ~70 kg (154 lbs) fully configured

• Power Subsystem:

  • Dual redundant (N+1), hot-plug AC power supplies per CEC enclosure.

  • Operating Voltage: 200 – 240 V AC at 50/60 Hz.

  • Integrated IBM EnergyScale dynamic power management, power trending, and power capping.