Specifications

Chapter 3. Virtualization 81
Draft Document for Review May 12, 2014 12:46 pm 5102ch03.fm
Table 3-2 lists the differences between processors modes.
Table 3-2 Differences between POWER6, POWER7, POWER8 compatibility mode
3.3 Active Memory Expansion
Active Memory Expansion is an optional feature for the Power S822 feature selecting the
#4793 feature code in the e-Config tool.
This feature enables memory expansion on the system. By using compression and
decompression of memory content can effectively expand the maximum memory capacity,
providing additional server workload capacity and performance.
Active Memory Expansion is a technology that allows the effective maximum memory
capacity to be much larger than the true physical memory maximum. Compression and
decompression of memory content can allow memory expansion up to 125% for AIX
partitions, which in turn enables a partition to perform significantly more work or support more
users with the same physical amount of memory. Similarly, it can allow a server to run more
partitions and do more work for the same physical amount of memory.
POWER6 and
POWER6+ mode
POWER7 mode POWER8 mode Customer value
2-thread SMT 4-thread SMT 8-thread SMT Throughput
performance,
processor core
utilization
Vector Multimedia
Extension/ AltiVec
(VMX)
Vector scalar
extension (VSX)
VSX2
In-Core Encryption
Acceleration
High-performance
computing
Affinity off by default 3-tier memory,
micropartition affinity,
dynamic platform
optimizer
򐂰 HW memory
affinity tracking
assists
򐂰 Micropartition
prefetch
򐂰 Concurrent LPARs
per core
Improved system
performance for
system images
spanning sockets and
nodes
64-core and
128-thread scaling
򐂰 32-core and
128-thread scaling
򐂰 64-core and
256-thread scaling
򐂰 128-core and
512-thread scaling
򐂰 256-core and
1024-thread
scaling
򐂰 1024-thread
Scaling
򐂰 Hybrid threads
򐂰 Transactional
memory
򐂰 Active system
optimization HW
assists
Performance and
scalability for large
scale-up single system
image workloads
(such as OLTP, ERP
scale-up, and WPAR
consolidation)
EnergyScale CPU Idle EnergyScale CPU Idle
and Folding with NAP
and SLEEP
WINKLE, NAP, SLEEP,
Idle power saver
Improved energy
efficiency
Note: The Active Memory Expansion feature is not supported with the Linux operating
systems.