IBM unveils first mainframe fully engineered for AI age

Wednesday, 23 April 2025 00:06 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

IBM has announced the IBM z17, the next generation of the company’s iconic mainframe, fully engineered with AI capabilities across hardware, software, and systems operations.

Powered by the new IBM Telum II processor, IBM z17 expands the system’s capabilities beyond transactional AI capabilities to enable new workloads.

IBM Z is built to redefine AI at scale, positioning enterprises to score 100% of their transactions in real-time.1 z17 enables businesses to drive innovation and do more, including the ability to process 50 percent more AI inference operations per day than z16.2.

The new IBM z17 is built to drive business value across industries with a wide range of more than 250 AI use cases, such as mitigating loan risk, managing chatbot services, supporting medical image analysis or impeding retail crime, among others.

IBM z17 is the culmination of five years of design and development which included the filing of over 300 patent applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Designed with the direct input of over 100 clients and in close collaboration with IBM Research and Software teams; the new system introduces multi-model AI capabilities, new security features to protect data, and tools that leverage AI for improving system usability and management:

*Bringing AI to Data – z17 AI inferencing capabilities are powered by a second-generation on-chip AI accelerator built into the IBM Telum II processor, featuring increased frequency, compute capacity, a 40% growth in cache, enabling more than 450 billion inferencing operations in a day and one millisecond response time.

*Expanding Acceleration for AI – The IBM Spyre Accelerator expected to be available 4Q 2025 via PCIe card, will provide additional AI compute capabilities to complement the Telum II processor.

Together, they will create optimized environments to support multi-model methods of AI. The Spyre Accelerator is specially engineered to bring generative AI capabilities to the mainframe including running assistants, leveraging enterprise data contained in the system.

*Leveraging AI to Enhance User Experience – z17 is designed to bolster the skills and efficiency of developers and IT operations with the use of AI assistants and AI agents, including IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z and IBM watsonx Assistant for Z.

In addition, for the first time, watsonx Assistant for Z will be integrated with Z Operations Unite to provide AI chat-based incident detection and resolution using live systems data.

IBM General Manager of IBM Z and LinuxONE Ross Mauri said: “The industry is quickly learning that AI will only be as valuable as the infrastructure it runs on. With z17, we’re bringing AI to the core of the enterprise with the software, processing power, and storage to make AI operational quickly. Additionally, organisations can put their vast, untapped stores of enterprise data to work with AI in a secured, cost-effective way.”

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