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64 IBM System p5 520 and 520Q Technical Overview and Introduction
2.14 Operating system support
The p5-520 and p5-520Q are capable of running the AIX 5L and Linux operating systems.
The AIX 5L operating system has been developed and enhanced specifically to exploit and to
support the extensive RAS features on IBM System p systems.
2.14.1 AIX 5L
If you are installing AIX 5L on the server, the following minimum requirements must be met:
AIX 5L for POWER V5.2 with the 5200-09 Technology Level (APAR IY82425), or later
AIX 5L for POWER V5.3 with the 5300-05 Technology Level (APAR IY82426), or later
IBM periodically releases maintenance packages for the AIX 5L operating system. These
packages are available on CD-ROM or you can download them from the Internet at:
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/support/unixservers/index.html
The Web page provides information about how to obtain the CD-ROM.
You can also get individual operating system fixes and information about obtaining AIX 5L
service at this Web site. In AIX 5L V5.3, the suma command is also available, which helps the
administrator to automate the task of checking and downloading operating system
downloads. For more information about the suma command, refer to:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/suma/home.html
Electronic Software Delivery (ESD) for AIX 5L V5.2 and V5.3 for POWER5 systems was
made available. This is a way for clients to receive software and associated publications
online, as opposed to waiting for a physical shipment to arrive. Clients requesting ESD should
order FC 3450.
ESD has the following requirements:
POWER5 system
Internet connectivity from a POWER5 system or PC and reasonable connection speed for
downloading large products such as AIX 5L
Registration on the ESD Web site
For additional information, contact your IBM marketing representative.
Software support for new features in the POWER5+ processor
For a complete list of the new features introduced in the POWER5+ processor, see 2.1, “The
POWER5+ processor” on page 26. Support for two new virtual memory page sizes was
introduced: 64 KB and 16 GB as well as support for 1 TB segment size. While 16 GB pages
are intended for use only in very high performance environments, 64 KB pages are
general-purpose. AIX 5L Version 5.3 with the 5300-04 Technology Level 64-bit kernel is
required for 64 KB and 16 GB page size support.
As with all previous versions of AIX, 4 KB is the default page size. A process continues to use
4 KB pages, unless a user specifically requests that another page size is used. AIX 5L has
rich support of 64 KB pages. They are easy to use, and we expect that many applications will
see performance benefits when using 64 KB pages rather than 4 KB pages. No system
Note: The Advanced POWER Virtualization feature (FC 7940) is not supported on AIX 5L
V5.2. It requires AIX 5L V5.3.