IBM isn’t formally releasing Power11 processors until next year, but their software engineers continue being quite busy preparing the Linux kernel and other open-source software for Power11. The newest on the kernel side is enabling support for KVM nested guests on IBM Power11 platforms.
IBM engineers have carried out much of the Power11 enablement already for the mainline Linux kernel and for the prominent open-source compiler toolchains. The newest IBM Power11 feature work hitting the kernel is KVM nested guest virtualization support after some fixes were sent in.
The PowerPC pull request sent out earlier today has the Linux 6.13 feature updates. Most notable of the Power architecture changes is support for running Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) nested guests on Power11. That’s about it for the Power excitement this kernel cycle.
In case you missed it, last week on the IBM Newsroom they did share some early Power11 details as well as confirming the 2025 launch year for these next-generation Power processors. On the IBM Newsroom blog they announced:
“With a planned release in 2025, the next generation IBM Power11 system will have innovations in the processor, system, and stack levels to help enterprises propel digital transformation initiatives for their mission-critical infrastructure. IBM Power also continues to support emerging enterprise AI use cases with the MMA (Matrix-Math Assist) architecture.
The Power11 processor is designed to deliver higher clock speeds and can add up to 25% more cores per processor chip than comparable IBM Power10 systems. The Power11 processor builds upon the key capabilities we delivered with Power10 including stronger reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) characteristics, better energy efficiency and energy management, and improved quantum-safe security.”
Besides better performance, hopefully Power11 ends up being more open-source friendly than the binary flop of Power10 and the lack of nice open-source friendly systems from the likes of Raptor Computing Systems. We’ll see next year.
