Smart IOA Performance with External Storage Performance

Smart Fibre Channel IOA (IOPless Fibre Channel) is a new hardware architecture for Power™ Systems with IBM i (formerly known as i5/OS) specifically designed to address some of the external storage performance limitations seen in the past. The smart IOA architecture uses new Fibre Channel IOAs to connect to the external storage. An IOA is an I/O adapter that is connecting to the storage device. The IOA can either support fibre channel or parallel SCSI protocol. The IOP is a daughter card placed in the Power server that performs I/O processing, as the name implies smart IOAs or IOPless IOAs do not require an I/O processor card to offload the management of the data. Instead the CPU manages the I/O and communicates directly with the IOA. This paper will show lab results of the DS8300 connected to the System i platform comparing smart IOA operation to the traditional IOP based architecture. This will provide the reader with insight into the potential performance improvements that may accrue when implementing external disk storage with smart IOAs.

Contact IBM

Browse Power Systems

Close [x]

Advantages

Companies embracing Smarter Computing are implementing IT infrastructure based on the IBM Power Systems platform that is designed for data, tuned to the task and managed with cloud technologies. With Power Systems, businesses can outpace their competitors by delivering services faster, differentiate their offerings by delivering higher quality services, and turn operational cost into investment opportunity by delivering services with superior economics.

Close [x]

Hardware

Power Systems hardware provides the foundation for designing workload optimized systems in conjunction with software and expert domain knowledge. Power servers and blades are modular and scalable and designed from the chip through the software stack to help deliver new levels of business performance.

Close [x]

Operating systems

Power servers deliver flexibility and choice of operating systems to enable your business to select the best applications for your business needs. Whether running 1, 2, or all 3 - coupled with PowerVM, they maximize the benefit of Power Systems in your business.

Close [x]

System software

IBM's integrated approach to developing Systems and Systems Software stacks together delivers maximum utilization, availability, and flexibility helping you deliver new advantages in your business.

Close [x]

Solutions

IBM and IBM Business Partner solutions exploit key benefits in Power Systems that help you deliver new capabilities and new competitive advantages to your business.

Close [x]

Migrate to Power

Over the last five years thousands of clients have migrated to POWER. Learn how Power Systems has helped them improve their business performance, reduce risk, and establish a more secure future.

Full text white paper