IBM Unveils Dual-ISA Mainframe Processor with Native Arm Execution

IBM has unveiled its latest mainframe processor, which features a dual-ISA core that can natively execute both z/Architecture and Arm AArch64 instructions. This design allows for seamless integration of existing mainframe code with the vast library of Arm software.

The new processor, which is part of IBM's Z and LinuxONE line, boasts 11 cores running at 5.7+ GHz on a 2nm process. Each core comes equipped with large private L2 caches and a dedicated on-chip DPU for I/O acceleration. The processor also features AI, compression, cryptography, and sort blocks.

IBM has implemented AArch64 in full hardware rather than through translation, which enables native Arm execution without the need for emulation or translation layers. This allows for unmodified Arm software to run on the mainframe, giving customers access to a vast library of existing code.

The second-generation AI inference accelerator targets larger enterprise workloads and features 16 active AI cores plus one redundant core. It can deliver up to 4x TOPS and comes with 96GB of HBM3e memory running at up to 4TB/s.