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IBM is unloose the late version of its mainframe ironware that include new updates mean to speed up AI acceptance .
The hardware and confer with company on Monday announced IBM z17 , the latest variant of its mainframe computer hardware . This amply cipher CPU is power by an IBM Telum II central processor and is design for more than 250 AI use cases , the ship’s company say , include AI agents and generative AI .
Mainframes might seem like old lid , but they ’re used by 71 % of Fortune 500 companies today , harmonize to one source . In 2024 , the processor market place was worth an figure $ 5.3 billion , per consult firm Market Research Future .
The z17 can sue 450 billion inference operations in a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , a 50 % increase over its predecessor , the IBM z16 , which was released in 2022 and run on the troupe ’s original Tellum central processor . The system is designed to be able to fully desegregate with other hardware , package , and open origin putz .
Tina Tarquinio , VP of merchandise management and invention for IBM Z , told TechCrunch that this central processing unit upgrade has been in the workplace for five years — well before the current AI frenzy that start with the release ofOpenAI ’s ChatGPTin November 2022 .
IBM spent more than 2,000 research hours getting feedback from over 100 customers as it build the z17 , Tarquinio said . She thinks it ’s interesting to see that , now , five years later , the feedback they got line up with where the market ended up head .
“ It has been wild recognize that we ’re innovate an AI throttle , and then seeing , specially in the later one-half of 2022 , all of the change in the industry regarding AI , ” Tarquinio told TechCrunch . “ It ’s been really exciting . I think the biggest item has been [ that ] we do n’t roll in the hay what we do n’t acknowledge about what ’s coming , right ? So the possibilities are really unlimited in term of what AI can help us do . ”
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The z17 is set up to adjust and accommodate where the AI market head , Tarquinio say . The mainframe computer will support 48 IBM Spyre AI gas poker chip upon release , with the programme to bring that number up to 96 within 12 months .
“ We are deliberately building in headroom , ” Tarquinio said . “ We ’re purposely building in AI agility . So as newfangled mannikin are introduced , [ we ’re ] making indisputable that we ’ve built in the headroom for bigger , big simulation — models that peradventure 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 say that one of the highlights of this latest computer hardware — although she joked it was like being asked to nibble her favourite child — is that the z17 is more energy - efficient than its predecessor and purportedly competitors , too .
“ On - chip , we ’re increasing the AI acceleration by seven and a one-half times , but that ’s five and a one-half times less get-up-and-go than you would need to do , like , multi - model on another type of accelerator or political platform in the manufacture , ” Tarquinio say .
The z17 central processor will become loosely available on June 18 .
This piece has been updated to reflect IBM ’s timeline .
