With AIX 6.1 it was POWER4 or later - then I was "Happy Me!" because I already had a POWER4 system.
With AIX 7.2 - for now I am "sad me" because I do not have a POWER7. However, next week I am going to be speaking at the POWER TechU in Cannes (look me up if you are there as well). Maybe I will find a good deal on a second hand POWER7 and again be a "Happy Me!"
p.s. May I suggest viewing AIXVUG replay of Jay and Dave's presentation (yesterday) on AIX 7.2 - see - YouTube
I would say "sad me". I always first tested solutions in my testlab on Power4/5/6. Now I have to buy Power7. More sad - firmware updates for Power8 servers are only available with the IBM support contract. If in several years you will want buy a used Power8 server, you will not be able to update its firmware.
At the middle/end of 2017 we plan to migrate from Power7/Power7+ to Power8 and in the past we scrap our "old" hardware.
So if nobody from our company will buy or our service contractor take back this hardware, i can give a hint here. But you must pick up itself
I am in Cannes, for the POWER TechU, and when I make some better notes about the new linkedIn groups the devs are (permitted to be) in, I shall add them, so we can all send our sad faces and how this hurts "the community".
MichaelFelt, I saw you there yesterday. Sorry didn't say hallo, because you were a little bit far from me, but I hope to visit your session on Wednesday before going to Monte-Carlo.
I also thought to say something like to Jeff or somebody else (Wolfgang Wendt as new HW sales leader?), but I think it was a marketing decision to close the market from the smallest companies... Big customers who buy POWER can afford new big servers and are supported by IBM directly. Small customers are to migrate to Linux.
No, I do not think it will be possible to run it on Power6 or less.
Internally, assuming the explanation is like what they gave for AIX 6.1 needs Power4 or newer - is that they could reduce the code by XX % - of all kinds of "if" statements by removing code for specific platforms.
The easier explanation is that they use the xlc compiler with the flags -qarch=power7 whcih means it can use instructions unique to power7 and later (read special instructions that do not exist on power6 or earlier) - and just one - in the kernel - will be enough to bring it down (or easier, use one of these in the boot code, so it shall refuse to boot).
