IBM Power Systems is a family of
server computers from
IBM that are based on its
Power processors. It was created in 2008 as a merger of the
System p and
System i product lines.
History
IBM had two distinct POWER- and PowerPC-based hardware lines since the early 1990s:
Servers running processors based on the
IBM PowerPC-AS architecture in the
AS/400 family (later known as iSeries, then System i) running OS/400 (later known as i5/OS, and now
IBM i)
After the introduction of the
POWER4 processor in 2001, there was little difference between both the "p" and the "i" hardware; the only differences were in the software and services offerings. With the introduction of the
POWER5 processor in 2004, even the product numbering was synchronized. The System i5 570 was virtually identical to the System p5 570.
In April 2008, IBM officially merged the two lines of servers and workstations under the same name, Power,[2] and later Power Systems, with identical hardware and a choice of operating systems, software, and service contracts,[3] based formerly on a
POWER6 architecture. The PowerPC line was discontinued.