Power 6 Power Requirements
IBM Power 6 power requirements by machine type: rated voltage, maximum watts, thermal output in BTU per hour, weight and rack units for the Power 520, Power 550 and Power 570, including the multi-drawer multiplier that catches most Power 570 plans.
Power 6 is where IBM's published electrical figures stop describing a whole machine and start describing one drawer of it. A Power 570 rated at 1,400 W is a 1,400 W machine only if it has one processor enclosure. A 32-core 570 has four, and needs four times everything. Getting that multiplier wrong is the single most common Power 6 facilities error, and it is entirely avoidable.
Power 6 power requirements by machine type
IBM published electrical and physical ratings, Power 6 family
| Machine type | Model | Operating voltage | Max power | Max thermal | Weight | EIA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8203-E4A | Power 520 | 100 - 127 or 200 - 240 V ac | 770 W | 2,628 BTU/hr | 34.0 kg rack, 37.6 kg tower | 4U |
| 8261-E4S | Power 520 variant | 100 - 127 or 200 - 240 V ac | 770 W | 2,628 BTU/hr | 34.0 kg rack, 37.6 kg tower | 4U |
| 9407-M15 | Power 520 (i edition) | 100 - 127 or 200 - 240 V ac | 770 W | 2,628 BTU/hr | 34.0 kg rack, 37.6 kg tower | 4U |
| 9408-M25 | Power 520 (i edition) | 100 - 127 or 200 - 240 V ac | 770 W | 2,628 BTU/hr | 34.0 kg rack, 37.6 kg tower | 4U |
| 8204-E8A | Power 550 Express | 100 - 127 or 200 - 240 V ac | 1,500 W | 5,120 BTU/hr | 48.7 kg rack, 57.2 kg tower | 4U |
| 9409-M50 | Power 550 (i edition) | 100 - 127 or 200 - 240 V ac | 1,500 W | 5,120 BTU/hr | 48.7 kg rack, 57.2 kg tower | 4U |
| 9117-MMA | Power 570 | 200 - 240 V ac | 1,400 W per drawer | 4,778 BTU/hr per drawer | 63.6 kg per drawer | 4U per drawer |
All models are single phase at 50 or 60 Hz plus or minus 3 Hz. IBM publishes one shared specification for the 8203-E4A, 8261-E4S, 9407-M15 and 9408-M25, and one for the 8204-E8A and 9409-M50, rather than separate figures per model. The Power 570 figure is per 8-core processor enclosure. The Power 595 (9119-FHA) is not covered here because IBM does not publish its figures in the same specification set; treat it as a frame-level three-phase installation and source its numbers from the machine's own planning documentation.
The Power 570 multiplier
IBM builds the larger Power 570 configurations out of stacked 8-core drawers. A 16-core system is two drawers, a 24-core is three, and a 32-core is four. Every electrical, thermal, weight and rack figure multiplies with them, and IBM's specification page publishes the per-drawer number only.
Power 570 (9117-MMA) by configuration
| Configuration | Drawers | Max power | Max thermal | Weight | Rack space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8-core | 1 | 1,400 W | 4,778 BTU/hr | 63.6 kg | 4U |
| 16-core | 2 | 2,800 W | 9,556 BTU/hr | 127.2 kg | 8U |
| 24-core | 3 | 4,200 W | 14,334 BTU/hr | 190.8 kg | 12U |
| 32-core | 4 | 5,600 W | 19,112 BTU/hr | 254.4 kg | 16U |
Drawer counts and the multi-drawer structure are IBM's own. The per-drawer rating is 1,400 W at a power factor of 0.98 and a maximum of 1.4286 kVA; the multiplied figures follow directly from the drawer count. A fully populated 32-core 570 is a 5.6 kW, quarter-tonne, 16U installation, which is a different room from the 4U machine the specification sheet appears to describe.
This is the number to check before anyone commits to a relocation or a UPS. A four-drawer Power 570 at 19,112 BTU/hr needs more than a ton and a half of cooling on its own, and a floor that will take 254 kg in 16 rack units. Quotes written against the single-drawer figure are wrong by a factor of four.
What replaces a Power 6, and what it draws
Rated maximum power against likely replacements
| If you run | Rated max | Common replacement | Rated max | Room impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power 520 (8203-E4A) | 770 W | Power 11 S1112 (9242-21B) | 550 W | Lower load, 120 V still works, 2U instead of 4U |
| Power 550 (8204-E8A) | 1,500 W | Power 10 S1014 (9105-41B) | 1,075 W | Lower load, same 4U footprint |
| Power 570, 16-core | 2,800 W | Power 11 S1124 (9824-42A) | 2,950 W | Broadly unchanged rating, 8U down to 4U |
| Power 570, 32-core | 5,600 W | Power 11 S1124 (9824-42A) | 2,950 W | Roughly half the load, 16U down to 4U |
Ratings are the maximum a machine is permitted to draw. The multi-drawer Power 570 rows are where the facilities case makes itself: replacing four stacked drawers with one 4U machine removes twelve rack units, roughly 210 kg, and about half the electrical load, while raising capacity substantially.
Planning a room that still holds a Power 6
Count the drawers before anything else
On a Power 570 the drawer count is the specification. Read it from the rack, not from the model name, and multiply every published figure by it before sizing a circuit, a UPS or a cooling budget.
Watch the voltage step at the 570
The Power 520 and Power 550 both accept 100 to 127 V ac. The Power 570 does not, and requires 200 to 240 V ac. A small room that ran a 520 on a standard circuit will need electrical work before it can hold a 570.
Power factor is published on this generation
IBM gives the Power 570 a 0.98 power factor and a 1.4286 kVA maximum per drawer. If you are sizing a UPS or a generator that is rated in kVA rather than watts, use those figures directly instead of converting from the watt rating.
Parts, not capacity, is the constraint
Every Power 6 supply is well past its design life and outside IBM support. Confirm redundancy is actually intact and that a replacement supply can still be sourced before planning another year of service.
Sources: IBM's Power 520 family server specifications, the Power 550 specifications, and the Power 570 specifications. Replacement figures come from IBM's current Power 10 and Power 11 server specifications.
Confirm what you actually have on Identify Your Power 6 and check the processor against the Power 6 CPU reference. If this feeds a replacement decision, the migration options and the end of support position carry the rest. For the cross-generation facilities walkthrough see AS400System.com's Power server power requirements guide.