Specialty processors

z/VM® provides guest support for IBM® mainframe specialty processors:
IBM Integrated Facility for Linux® (IFL)
Start of changeIFL processors provide additional processing capacity for Linux workloads. IFLs can be allocated only in a LINUX only or z/VM mode LPAR.End of change
IBM Internal Coupling Facility (ICF)
ICF processors allow multiple LPARs running z/OS® to manage data and distribute workload in a Parallel Sysplex® clustered system.
IBM z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP)
zIIPs are designed to help improve resource optimization and lower the cost for eligible workloads. z/OS exploits zIIPs to offload software system overhead from standard central processors (CPs). This includes certain Db2® processing, enhancing the role of the mainframe as the data hub of the enterprise.

You can define a mix of these specialty processors and CPs in the same z/VM-mode logical partition.

z/VM provides two types of guest support for specialty processors:
  • Simulation support

    z/VM guest virtual machines can create virtual specialty processors on processor models that support the same types of specialty processor but do not necessarily have them installed. Virtual specialty processors are dispatched on real CPs. Simulating specialty processors provides a test platform for z/VM guests to exploit mixed-processor configurations. For example, this allows users to assess the operational and CPU utilization implications of configuring a z/OS system with zIIPs without requiring the real specialty processor hardware.

  • Virtualization support

    z/VM can create virtual specialty processors for virtual machines by dispatching the virtual processors on corresponding specialty processors of the same type in the real configuration. For example, guest support for zIIPs might help improve your total cost of ownership by allowing available zIIP capacity not being used by z/OS LPARs to be allocated to a z/VM LPAR hosting z/OS guests running Java™ and Db2.

Note: z/VM will not allow a guest to define a processor type if the machine does not support it.

For more information about specialty processor support, see z/VM: Running Guest Operating Systems.