Specifications

Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview 111
IBM periodically releases maintenance packages (service packs or technology levels) for the
AIX operating system. Information about these packages, downloading, and obtaining the
CD-ROM is on the Fix Central website:
http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/
The Fix Central website also provides information about how to obtain the fixes shipping
on CD-ROM.
The Service Update Management Assistant, which can help you to automate the task of
checking and downloading operating system downloads, is part of the base operating
system. For more information about the suma command, go to following website:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/genunix/suma.html
IBM AIX Version 5.3
The minimum level of AIX Version 5.3 to support the Power 770 and Power 780 is AIX 5.3
with the 5300-12 Technology Level and Service Pack 5 or later.
A partition using AIX Version 5.3 will be executing in POWER6 or POWER6+ compatibility
mode. This means that although the POWER7 processor has the ability to run four hardware
threads per core simultaneously, using AIX 5.3 limits the number of hardware threads per
core to two.
IBM AIX Version 6.1
The minimum level of AIX Version 6.1 to support the Power 770 and Power 780 is:
򐂰 AIX 6.1 with the 6100-07 Technology Level or later
򐂰 AIX 6.1 with the 6100-06 Technology Level and Service Pack 6 or later
򐂰 AIX 6.1 with the 6100-05 Technology Level and Service Pack 7 or later
A partition using AIX 6.1 with TL6 can run in POWER6, POWER6+, or POWER7 mode. It is
best to run the partition in POWER7 mode to allow exploitation of new hardware capabilities
such as SMT4 and Active Memory Expansion (AME).
IBM AIX Version 7.1
The minimum level of AIX Version 7.1 to support the Power 770 and Power 780 is:
򐂰 AIX 7.1 with the 7100-01 Technology Level or later
򐂰 AIX 7.1 with the 7100-00 Technology Level and Service Pack 4 or 1 later
A partition using AIX 7.1 can run in POWER6, POWER6+, or POWER7 mode. It is best to run
the partition in POWER7 mode to allow exploitation of new hardware capabilities such as
SMT4 and AME.
2.14.3 IBM i operating system
The IBM i operating system is supported on the Power 720 and Power 740 with these
minimum required levels:
򐂰 IBM i Version 6.1 with i 6.1.1 machine code or later
򐂰 IBM i Version 7.1 or later
IBM periodically releases maintenance packages (service packs or technology levels) for the
IBM i operating system. Information about these packages, downloading, and obtaining the
CD-ROM is on the Fix Central website:
http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/