PowerVM
IBM's hypervisor for Power servers, built into system firmware. It is what lets a Linux partition running an AI model sit on the same machine as the production IBM i partition, each with its own processors, memory and cards.
What does PowerVM do for an IBM i shop?
A Power server is one box. PowerVM is the part that splits it into several smaller computers. Each one is called a logical partition, or LPAR. Picture a building with one furnace and separate locked apartments. The furnace is the hardware. The apartments are the partitions. Nobody in one apartment can walk into another.
That split is what makes AI work on a production machine. IBM's Power 11 documentation says PowerVM runs AIX, IBM i and Linux virtual machines on the same server. So the production IBM i workload keeps its own partition, and a Red Hat Enterprise Linux partition beside it runs the AI model. You can patch, restart or delete the Linux side without touching IBM i.
How small a slice of a server can one partition get?
Dedicated and shared processor partitions under PowerVM
| How the partition gets CPU | Dedicated processor | Shared processor |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest amount of CPU | 1 whole core | 0.05 of a core |
| Step size when you change it | 1 whole core | 0.01 of a core |
| How the hypervisor runs it | A whole core is mapped to the partition | Time sliced in a 10 millisecond dispatch window |
| What caps the partition count | The number of activated cores | The server model, up to 1000 virtual machines on some |
Source: Introduction to IBM PowerVM, IBM Redbook SG24-8535, March 2023.
What are the parts of PowerVM?
- PowerVM hypervisor, shortened to PHYP. It sits in firmware and hands out processors, memory and card slots to each partition.
- Virtual I/O Server, or VIOS. It is a partition itself. It owns real network and disk cards and shares them with the other partitions, so each one does not need its own.
- Service processor. IBM lists this as an enterprise Baseboard Management Controller, or eBMC, or a Flexible Service Processor, or FSP.
- Hardware Management Console, or HMC. The console a person uses to create and change partitions.
- PowerVM NovaLink and IBM Power Virtualization Center, or PowerVC. Two ways to drive the same work from software instead of by hand.
What does an AI partition need on top of PowerVM?
A Spyre Accelerator card is not shared between partitions. IBM assigns it to one partition, and one partition can hold up to 24 cards. That partition has to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6, 9.8 or 10.2 with Red Hat AI Inference Server. IBM lists a floor of 512 GB of memory, 10 processor cores and 600 GB of storage per model you serve, and says to raise the memory as the model size and pod count grow.
Spyre Accelerator cards, per partition and per system
Source: IBM Spyre Accelerator for Power, September 2026. The per-system range is for machine type 9080-HEU and comes in groups of 8 or 12.
The card is not an IBM i device. IBM drives it from a Red Hat Enterprise Linux partition on the same physical server, so an IBM i shop can try AI inference on hardware it already owns without moving the production partition.
Related Terms
AI Inference Partition
A separate supported operating-system partition used to execute an AI model while an IBM i partition may remain the production application and data source.
Dynamic Logical Partitioning
Dynamic logical partitioning, or DLPAR, moves processors, memory and card slots in and out of a running IBM Power partition without restarting it. IBM documents it for the Spyre Accelerator, so an AI card can join or leave a Linux inference partition while the IBM i production partition keeps working.
Hardware Management Console
The HMC is the console an IBM i shop uses to create the partition an AI model runs in, then hand that partition processors, memory and the PCIe slot holding an accelerator card while production keeps running. IBM Power 11 servers need HMC release V11R1M1110 or later.
Spyre Accelerator
IBM's PCIe AI inference card. On IBM Power 11 it carries 32 cores, 128 GB of memory, and more than 300 TOPS inside a 75 watt envelope.