{
  "name": "IBM Power6 to Power7/Power8/Power9/Power10/Power11 Migration Comparison Dataset",
  "description": "Structured generation-by-generation comparison mapping IBM Power6 against every newer Power Systems generation through the current Power11.",
  "sources": [
    "https://www.itjungle.com/2017/09/25/ibm-inks-end-support-power6-power7-iron/",
    "https://serviceexpress.com/resources/ibm-power-comparison-power8-power9-power10-power11/",
    "https://newsroom.ibm.com/2025-07-08-ibm-power11-raises-the-bar-for-enterprise-it"
  ],
  "updated_at": "2026-08-22",
  "table": {
    "caption": "Power6 generation-by-generation comparison",
    "headers": ["Generation", "Announced", "Core Design", "What Changed From Prior Generation", "Status Today"],
    "rows": [
      ["Power6 (this generation)", "May 2007", "Dual-core, up to ~5.0 GHz (POWER6+)", "Hardware decimal floating point; System i/System p unified into Power Systems (April 2008)", "EOS March 31, 2019"],
      ["Power7", "February 2010", "4, 6, or 8 cores per chip", "Shifted strategy from clock speed to core count; on-chip eDRAM cache", "Past IBM standard support"],
      ["Power8", "2013 (GA 2014)", "6 or 12 cores per chip", "CAPI for accelerator attachment; NVLink partnership with NVIDIA", "Past IBM standard support"],
      ["Power9", "August 2016 (GA 2017-2018)", "Up to 24 cores per chip", "PCIe Gen4, OpenCAPI, NVLink 2.0", "Approaching end of standard support"],
      ["Power10", "August 2020 (GA 2021)", "Up to 30 cores per chip", "Open Memory Interface (OMI), PCIe Gen5, Memory Inception", "Actively sold, fully supported"],
      ["Power11 (current)", "July 2025 (GA July 2025)", "Up to 60 cores per socket, up to 256 across nodes", "Matrix Math Accelerator for AI inferencing, DDR5, entry/midrange/enterprise launched together", "IBM's current shipping generation"]
    ],
    "note": "Power6 is the only generation on this list already past IBM's own hardware end-of-service date. Every other generation shown is either fully supported today or approaching its own support window years from now.",
    "footnote": "Generation years and core-count figures per IBM's own announcements and independent Power lifecycle tracking. Confirm exact processor feature codes and configuration limits with a sourcing vendor before finalizing a quote."
  },
  "efficiency_notes": [
    "Every generation on this list is under active IBM support today except Power6, which reached end of service March 31, 2019.",
    "The migration project itself, application testing, OS upgrade, storage architecture change, is largely the same effort whether you land on a mid-chain generation or the current one, which is why most Power6 shops are better served skipping straight to Power11.",
    "IBM Power maintains strong binary compatibility across generations; an IBM i, AIX, or Linux workload built for Power6 runs on any newer generation without a rewrite, the decision is about which generation and support runway, not application survival."
  ]
}