IBM's new Power11 server chips are focused on two things: AI and ransomware

IBM logo on a metallic surface
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

It can be easy to forget that x86, Arm, and RISC-V aren't the only instruction set architectures on the planet. IBM today offered its periodic reminder that its Power ISA exists with the announcement of new Power11 hardware that, among other things, promises to help minimize disruptions related to attempted ransomware attacks.

"Power11 is designed to be the most resilient server in the history of the IBM Power platform, with 99.9999% of uptime," IBM said. "Together with zero planned downtime for system maintenance and less than one-minute guaranteed ransomware threat detection with IBM Power Cyber Vault, Power11 sets a new bar for business continuity, addressing both planned and cyber-incident-related downtime."

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Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

  • Marlin1975
    Seems its more an updated Power10 than a new design. Still built on Samsungs 7nm and many other parts, of what's known, is similar.

    So still way behind everything else and IBM still not putting much money into it.
    Reply
  • FunSurfer
    Well its about time AI starts fighting ransomware. Looking at you, Copilot.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    FunSurfer said:
    Well its about time AI starts fighting ransomware.
    Back when Intel bought McAfee, they made some announcements about it automatically detecting hackers/malware/etc. However, the problem with any sort of automated detection is that there will always be false positives. So, what you can actually do about it is quite limited, because you don't want to be randomly halting or killing programs that aren't true positives.

    As the article says, this is the true weakness in IBM's scheme. They state that it will detect ransomware, but then actually doing anything about it is left up to the operator. That means you basically need skilled 24/7 operations staff that are capable of assessing the threat and taking the appropriate action, or else the feature isn't so useful. Also, the false-positive rate needs to be exceedingly low, or else the feature will be likewise virtually unusable.

    So, I'd put almost no stock in such a feature. At the very least, it needs to be independently tested, including deployment at scale.

    What's more interesting is their data vaulting system. However, that's really just software and nothing fundamental to their CPUs. So, you could potentially use similar solutions from other vendors (or, for all I know, maybe even comparable open source solutions exist).
    Reply