Overview
What is Integrated Facility for Linux?
IBM® Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) is a processor dedicated to Linux® workloads on IBM zSystems® and IBM LinuxONE. It is supported by the Linux operating system for IBM zSystems and LinuxONE, IBM z/VM® and KVM. IBM z16™ and LinuxONE Emperor 4 offer massive processing capacity, on-chip acceleration, and industry-leading capabilities for cyber resiliency.
Benefits
Lower expenses
Reduce risk
Accelerate AI
Features
Extensive processing capacity
Support up to 200 user-configurable IFLs and up to 40 TB Redundant Array of Independent Memory (RAIM). Operate asynchronously with standard processors.
Designed for performance
Improve performance capability with enhanced Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) and Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) technologies.
Flexibility to add IFLs
IFLs can be added on the fly. IFL technology supports On/Off Capacity on Demand (O/O CoD), Capacity Upgrade on Demand, and Capacity BackUp (CBU).
High speed communication
IBM HiperSockets™ and Shared Memory Communication (SMC) functionality provide high speed communication between logical partitions.
On-chip acceleration
New on-chip acceleration provides faster AI insights at scale, increased data transfer rates, lower CPU consumption and rapid encryption of CPACF.
No affect to MSU rating
IFL does not increase charges for IBM zSystems software running on “standard” processors, nor does it affect the MSU rating or the IBM zSystems model designation.
Widely available and supported
Available for all models of IBM z16, z15™, z14®, z13®, z13s® and LinuxONE, and supported by the Linux OS for IBM zSystems and LinuxONE, z/VM and KVM.
Flexible partition management
Manageable by PR/SM or IBM Dynamic Partition Manager in logical partition (LPAR) with dedicated or shared processors. Requires an LPAR definition.
Client stories
Thanks to the economics of running Linux on the IFL processors, the cost of hosting our document repository is now a third of what it was before, a significant saving.
Toby C. Wolf
Vice President, Group Manager - Mainframe Operations Services
ZB, National Association
The IBM Z platform is very cost-effective and delivers exceptional reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) levels helping us improve the quality of service we deliver to our clients.
Frank Schütze
Head of IT
Stiftung Kirchliches Rechenzentrum Südwestdeutschland (KRZ-SWD)
Related products and services
IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center
Provide simplified Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) management for your workloads.
IBM z/VM
Improve performance with our highly secure and scalable hypervisor virtualization technology.
IBM z16
Accelerate decision velocity, protect against threats and modernize for hybrid cloud.
IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4
A highly secure, scalable server platform to help achieve lower energy costs and smaller carbon footprint.
Resources
Using KVM Virtualization
Run Linux as a guest of the open source KVM hypervisor.
IBM Redbooks®
Explore more information and technical insights about IBM Linux on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE.
IBM Global Financing
Discover customized payment options from the industry's top IT financier.
IBM Z and LinuxONE Community
Access a rich community of business and technical expert blogs and forums for Linux on IBM zSystems and LinuxONE.
IBM Developer Community
Access open-source projects, developer advocates and a global community of developers for Linux