This comes to us from Gareth Coates - my peer in ATS - Thanks, Gareth.

Summary

• AIX5.3 is no longer supported natively on POWER8
• AIX5.3 TL 12 can be supported in a versioned WPAR (vWPAR) on POWER8 based servers

1. GA was 14th October 2011 - Generally Available
2. EOM is 30th January 2018 - End of Marketing (i.e. you can purchase it)
3. EOS is 30th April 2019 - End of Service (extended service may or may not be available)

Native AIX 5.3 on POWER details

• Details can be found here:  https://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycleapp/PLCDetail.wss?q45=Q513879J82296G35

1. GA - 13-Aug-2004 
2. EOM - 29-Apr-2011 
3. EOS - 30-Apr-2012

AIX 5.3 Workload Partitions for AIX 7 on POWER7 

• Original Details can be found here:https://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycleapp/PLCDetail.wss?q45=X293041X90303C25

1. GA - 12-Oct-2011

• Announced and further dates: http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_oc/7/877/ENUS5765-WP7/index.html&request_locale=en

IBM AIX 5.3 Workload Partitions for AIX 7 V1.1.0 (Product Number: 5765-WP7) also called Versioned WPAR

• Briefly: AIX 5.3 Workload Partitions:
• Adds a kernel compatibility layer that allows AIX 5.3 commands and libraries running in the workload partition to function correctly (emulating AIX 5.3 behavior) when run on AIX 7.1
• Enables you to take advantage of the latest IBM Power Systems hardware enhancements sooner by running your legacy applications in a virtualized workload partition environment

1. Announced 2011-10-12
2. Available 2011-10-14
3. Marketing Withdrawn 2018-01-30
4. Service Discontinued 2019-04-30

Is POWER8 also supported? Answer: Yes

• Details can be found here: http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_sm/7/877/ENUS5765-WP7/index.html&request_locale=en

• Updated on October 31, 2017. 

Hardware requirements:

•  

  IBM systems that run the IBM POWER7 and POWER8 processors. 

Software requirements:

• AIX V7.1, or later 
• AIX 5.3 with the 5300-12 Technology Level 

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