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Dynamic Logical Partitioning for Linux on POWER
An anonymous reader writes "Logical partitioning provides POWER processor-based servers with the capability to do server consolidation and optimize system resources. Dynamic logical partitioning enhances this capability by providing control of the allocation of the resources without impacting the logical partitions availability. Linux on POWER supports dynamic LPAR for changes to physical I/O, virtual I/O, and processor resources."
They told the same thing 10 years ago about powerpc, and look what has happened.
Target market for Power(5): Servers. No mainframes (as those are a different area), no HPC (horrible FPU/$ performance compared to main competitors), no small servers (PPC970 is more or less dead in the water, and power5 with its horribly expensive MCMs isnt cost effective in the more "normal" enviroment.
SO i _seriously_ doubt "the entire world" will be using power in 10 years. They can be happy if the keep their market share.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
This document just touches on the capabilities. If you want to see a little bit more detail regarding running linux LPAR's on a POWER 5 system, I suggest heading here.
This is a good technology, and if there are people wanting to get LPAR capabilities without having to purchase all that extra IBM OS's (AIX, i5/OS), you might look into the OpenPower line. 2 way or 4 way POWER 5 systems that run only linux and can create upto 40 LPAR's on one system. That's bascially like having 40 different Linux servers all running at the same time on 4 total processors.
I agree this technology has some limitations as of right now, but it may not be a bad idea to look at it. And remember, this is PPC Linux, not your standard Intel Linux. While your boss won't know the difference, you should.
VD