Started on Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 2:13 AM

State Finished
Completed on Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 3:21 AM
Time taken 1 hour 8 mins
Grade 22.00 out of 25.00 (88%)
Feedback A minimum of 18 correct answers required to pass.

Congratulations, you passed the IBM Power9 Family Level 1 Quiz!

Question 1 The IBM POWER9 Enterprise scale-up server line (E950 and E980) still uses a buffered memory architecture;
however, for the scale-out server line, direct attached memory is preferred. What are some of the advantages
Correct
that make buffered memory the right choice for the Enterprise Scale up servers.
1.00 points out
of 1.00
Select one:
Buffered memory can deliver up to 230 GB/s of bandwidth and can support up to 8TB of memory per 

socket.
Buffered memory DIMMs cost significantly less than the more expensive industry standard DIMMs while
providing greater reliability and availability.

Buffered memory can deliver up to 170 GB/s of bandwidth and are often less expensive because they use
industry standard DIMMs.
Buffered memory provides compatibility with POWER8 memory DIMMs which allows you to easily upgrade
from E850/E870/E880 servers and provides the same 170 GB/s bandwidth that was available in the
POWER8 systems.

Question 2 POWER9 servers are delivering incredible performance results across the entire product line which leads to

Correct
clients needing fewer cores to run their workloads and therefore saving them in terms of software license

1.00 points out

charges and software support costs. One example of this is a benchmark result on the L922 used for Data
of 1.00 Warehousing where POWER9 delivered 6% better performance on fewer cores which translated into much
better price-performance. What was the price performance advantage for the POWER9 L922 compared to the
Intel Xeon Skylake Platinum server?

Select one:
The L922 delivered 2.4x better price performance compared to the x86 system. 

The L922 delivered 6% better price performance compared to the x86 system.

The L922 delivered 2x better price performance compared to the x86 system.
The L922 delivered 60% better price performance compared to the x86 system.

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Question 3 You are speaking with a client about their deep learning pilot projects that they currently have running on x86
servers which have NVIDIA GPUs in them. The client is frustrated with how long it is taking to build their models
Correct
and is looking at alternatives to improve the performance. They tell you they are working with massive data sets
1.00 points out
of 1.00 and it is taking their systems far too long to process all the data they need to build accurate models. What would
you say to them with respect to the AC922 in order to help solve their problem?

Select one:
"I know you are already using NVIDIA GPUs, but you should be aware that the AC922 also comes with 
unique capabilities of NVLink 2.0 which provides IBM with a unique advantage. With AC922 and NVLink
2.0 we can accelerate the movement of data between GPU and CPU 5.6x faster than your current x86
system, and we can get the data into the server twice as fast with our PCIe Gen4 adapters."

"With the AC922 you can have 4x more memory than any 2 socket x86 system. This combined with the
NVIDIA GPUs means that you can store more data in the GPU memory directly which will allow you to train
more complex models much faster than on your x86 system you are piloting today."
"Even though you are already using NVIDIA which provides high speed communication between NVIDIA
GPUs as well as between your x86 CPU and the GPUs, you should realize that the IBM AC922 also has PCIe
Gen4 which can greatly improve the performance of data ingestion and therefore result in faster training
times for your data models."
"With the AC922 you not only get faster GPUs than you can get with x86 servers but the PCIe Gen3 bus is
also significantly faster than what you can use with your current x86 servers. Therefore we will be able to
ingest the data twice as fast into main memory and be able to train your models much faster than your
current system."

Question 4 In the list below, there are three messages you should lead with when talking to clients about the IBM POWER9
Enterprises Servers (E950 and E980). Which of the following is not one of the messages you want to take to your
Correct

1.00 points out

clients when talking about this server line?
of 1.00
Select one:
Simplified Enterprise Cloud - Instantly cloud enable any workload with IBM POWER9 based Power Systems
and build a cloud designed for the most data intensive workloads.
Proven Reliability - IBM Power Systems ranks #1 in every major reliability category by ITIC and is an
industry leader of Mid Range and High End Servers.
Delivered Secure - IBM Power Systems have security built in at all layers, from Chip to the OS, and IBM
tests all permutations of entire stack to deliver end to end security.
Superior price performance with Scale out clustering -Grow as your workload needs demand by scaling 
out to hundreds of individual enterprise servers in a single cluster.

Question 5 What is the difference in the number of PCIe slots available between the H922 and H924?

Correct
Select one:
1.00 points out
of 1.00 The H924 and H922 both have 9 PCIe slots because 2 slots are reserved for the RDX bay in the H924 which
is not available in the H922
The H924 has 11 available PCIe slots while the H922 has only 9 available PCIe slots. 

The H924 has 11 available PCIe slots while the H922 has only 6 available PCIe slots.
The H924 and H922 are the same width (only the height is different) and therefore both have 11 available
PCIe slots.

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Question 6 Much like the E950, the E980 also supports either 12-core, 11-core, 10-core or 8-core per socket processors.
With 4 sockets per CEC drawer, what is the maximum number of processor cores that can be delivered in an
Correct
E980?
1.00 points out
of 1.00
Select one:
192 cores 

144 cores

96 cores
48 cores

Question 7 In a report from ITIC they stated " Among mainstream servers, IBM POWER8 and IBM POWER9 … delivered
the highest levels of reliabilty/uptime." In this report they noted that both IBM AIX on Power Systems as well
Incorrect
as several Linux distributions running on Power Systems had the lowest unplanned downtime of any
0.00 points out
vendor/OS combination they looked at. What was the reported unplanned downtime per year for Power
of 1.00
Systems in this report?

Select one:
13 hours per year

1.1 hours per year 

0.20 hours per year

0.08 hours per year

Question 8 The IBM POWER9 server line has a set of server optimized for SAP HANA workloads. The Scale out line includes
the H922 and H924 which are designed to run SAP HANA on Linux and will allow up to 25% of the cores to be
Incorrect
used for AIX or IBM i workloads. What is one of the features of the H922 that makes it a clear technology leader
0.00 points out
of 1.00 for SAP HANA over competitors?

Select one:
It is the only 2 socket system on the market for SAP HANA available in both 2U and 4U configurations. 

It is the only 2 socket, 2U system on the market for SAP HANA with 4TB of memory.
It is the only server on the market with 4TB of memory available in both 2 socket and 4 socket
configurations.
It is the only server available that can support up to 24 cores for SAP HANA in a Scale out configuration.

Question 9 The S914 is very similar in design to the S924.  Two of the differences are that the S914 is only available
with a single socket populated and that it also comes in both a rack mounted as well as a tower model. 
Correct
What is another difference between the S924 and S914?
1.00 points out
of 1.00
Select one:
The S914 only supports PCIe Gen3 slots whereas the S924 has both PCIe Gen3 and Gen4 slots available.
The S914 only supports 2TB of memory because only one socket is populated whereas the S924 supports
4TB of memory.
The S914 does not support the 12-core processor that is available on the S924 but the S914 does 
support a 4-core option which is not available on the S924.
The S914 only supports Linux whereas the S924 supports Linux, AIX and IBM i.

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Question 10 Using your understanding of the POWER9 server line naming conventions, if IBM were to hypothetically come
out with a server called the L941, what would be the specifications for this machine?
Correct

1.00 points out

of 1.00 Select one:
Linux optimized but can run 25% of cores for AIX and IBM i, POWER9, 4 sockets, 1U
Linux only, POWER9, 4U, 1 socket
Linux only, POWER9, 4 sockets, 1U 

Linux optimized but can run 25% of cores for AIX and IBM i, POWER9, 4U, 1 socket

Question 11 A client is looking at the E950 for an SAP HANA workload that needs 10TB of memory and they are looking for

Correct
the best per core performance they can buy (because they are sensitive to the software costs per processor
core). They know they don't need all the processors that the E950 can support, at least not for the foreseeable
1.00 points out
of 1.00 future. Which of the following options would give them the best per core performance?

Select one:
8 cores per socket 

12 cores per socket

11 cores per socket
10 cores per socket

Question 12 As the names suggest, the LC922 is a 2U server while the LC921 is only 1U in size. You have a client that is
running a very processor and memory intensive Spark application. They are looking to pack as many cores and
Incorrect
as much memory as possible into a rack to be able to scale out this intensive Spark workload. Which of the
0.00 points out
of 1.00 following statements is correct?

Select one:
Both the LC922 and LC921 support a maximum of 2TB of memory, but since the LC922 supports the 22
core per socket processor, you are able to fit more processors into a rack by filling it with LC922 servers.
The LC922 supports up to 44 cores per server while the LC921 only supports up to 40 cores per server 
so it is best to choose the LC922.
Both the LC922 and LC921 servers support the same cores per socket and the same amount of memory per
server and therefore it doesn’t matter which server you choose. They will both support the same amount
of processor and memory per rack, but the LC922 will support more storage in a rack; so it really depends
on how much storage the client needs.
The LC922 supports up to 44 cores in 2U of space where as the LC921 supports up to 80 cores in 2U of
space. The LC921 would have 2x the memory in 2U of space compared to the LC922 so for this client the
LC921 is likely the best solution.

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Question 13 With POWER9, IBM has moved to using industry standard memory DIMMS for the Scale out server line. What is
one of the advantages of using this memory?
Correct

1.00 points out

of 1.00 Select one:
One of the advantages of moving to industry standard DIMMS is that POWER9 can leverage the 2TB
memory cards and therefore we only need to install 2 DIMMS per server to get the maximum 4TB of
memory available on the system.
One advantage of using industry standard DIMMS is that it reduces the price of the memory for POWER9 
systems, but you should be aware that you cannot move memory from POWER8 servers over to new
POWER9 servers that do not use buffered memory.
One advantage is a client can migrate from an x86 server to POWER9 and move their existing memory over
to POWER9 servers, but they only have to purchase a memory upgrade option from us as outlined in
econfig.
One advantage is that the memory for POWER9 costs the same as those used with POWER8 systems and
you can just transfer the DIMMS used in POWER8 systems over to any new POWER9 system.

Question 14 Meltdown and Spectre are two security issues that have received a lot of attention in the marketplace of late. For

Correct
the POWER9 family of systems, which of the following statements is true?

1.00 points out

of 1.00 Select one:
IBM will only be shipping and turning on security patches in the Enterprise server line (E950 for example) as
these are the mission critical servers from IBM. Scale out servers can be patched by clients if they so
choose.

IBM is shipping servers with the patches installed and turned on by default even though this will have a 
small performance impact for clients. Clients can choose to run with the patches turned off for higher
performance if they understand the exposure.
IBM is shipping servers with the patches installed but these patches are turned off by default in order to
maximize performance for clients running behind a firewall.
IBM will be shipping patches to address these issues by the end of 2018.

Question 15 Many clients are using GPUs to accelerate deep learning. In a traditional deep learning environment, where
might one find a bottleneck that could be solved by the combination of AC922 and PowerAI resulting in faster
Correct
training times?
1.00 points out
of 1.00
Select one:
The link between the system memory and the CPU which is accelerated using NVidia NVLink technology.
Other vendors only use NVLink to accelerate the performance between GPUs.
The link between the GPU and the Power CPU which is improved using PCIe 3.0 technology. NVLink is only
able to increase the performance between GPUs.
The link between the GPU and the Power CPU which is improved using NVidia NVLink technology. Other 
vendors only use NVLink to accelerate the performance between GPUs.
The link between the GPU cores and the Power CPU which is improved using the Mellanox InfiniBand fabric
which has been a benefit for many Power clients traditionally focused on high performance computing
(HPC) workloads

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Question 16 Which of the following statements is correct for POWER9 Scale out and Scale up servers?

Correct
Select one:
1.00 points out
of 1.00 Scale out servers are optimized for 2 socket configurations while Scale up servers will be optimized for 4+
socket configurations - both will be available in both SMT8 core and SMT4 Core processors.
Scale out servers are optimized for 4+ socket configurations and are available in both SMT8 core and SMT4
core processors while Scale up servers will be optimized for 2 socket configurations and will be available
with SMT8 core processors.
Scale out servers are optimized for 2 socket configurations and are available in both SMT8 core and 
SMT4 core processors while Scale up will be optimized for 4+ socket configurations and will be available
with SMT8 core processors.
Scale out servers are optimized for 2 socket configurations and are available in SMT8 core processors only
while Scale up servers will be optimized for 4+ socket configurations and will be available with SMT8 core
and SMT4 core processors.

Question 17 Other than the fact that the L922 is a Linux only server while the S922 also supports AIX and IBM i, what is
another difference between the S922 and the L922?
Correct

1.00 points out

of 1.00 Select one:
The maximum system memory for the L922 is 4TB while the S922 goes up to 2TB.
The maximum system memory for the L922 is 2TB while the S922 goes up to 4TB.
The L922 can have only up to 11 cores/socket while the S922 can have up to 12 cores/socket.
The L922 can have up to 12 cores/socket while the S922 can only have up to 11 cores/socket. 

Question 18 What is the primary difference between the S924 and H924?

Correct
Select one:
1.00 points out
of 1.00 The H924 is designed to run SAP HANA workloads (which require Linux) and therefore the H924 supports
only Linux which allows us to reduce the costs and deliver a more competitive offering in the SAP HANA
space.
The H924 is designed to run SAP HANA workloads (which require Linux) and therefore the H924 runs 
Linux but IBM will allow you to run AIX and/or IBM i on a subset of the cores on the server for other
workloads in order to ensure the server has the flexibility our clients need while at the same time
allowing us to keep the costs down.
The H924 is designed to run SAP HANA workloads. Since SAP HANA is an in-memory database the H924
can support twice the amount of memory as the S924 and therefore provides better performance for SAP
HANA.
The H924 is designed to run SAP HANA which requires higher levels of concurrency and therefore requires
more simultaneous threads. Therefore, the H924 ships with only the 12-core SMT8 processor option in
order to keep the costs down while providing clients with a system that is optimal for SAP HANA workloads.

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Question 19 Which of the following statements is correct with respect to the maximum amount of memory available in the
Scale out servers (S914, L922, S922, S924, H922, H924)?
Correct

1.00 points out

of 1.00 Select one:
All the 2 socket servers support up to 4TB of memory while the 1 socket servers only support up to 1TB 
of memory.
All the 4U servers support up to 4TB of memory while the 2U servers all support up to 2TB of memory.
All the S and H model servers support up to 4TB of memory while the L model server only supports up to
2TB of memory.
All servers in the Scale out server line support up to 4TB of memory.

Question 20 The focus of the POWER9 LC server line is to crush Big Data workloads; their processing power, memory, and

Correct
storage characterisitcs have been proven to significantly outperform rival x86 systems. In a recent Apache Spark

1.00 points out

benchmark, a cluster of four LC922 servers outperformed a cluster of four Intel Xeon SP Gold 6140 servers by
of 1.00 how much?

Select one:
a. The POWER9 cluster outperformed the x86 cluster by 18% and delivered 1.59x better price-performance.

b. The POWER9 cluster outperformed the x86 cluster by 30% and delivered 1.59x better price- 
performance.

c. The POWER9 cluster outperformed the x86 cluster by 30% and delivered 18% better price-performance.
d. The POWER9 cluster outperformed the x86 cluster by 30% but due to the low cost of x86 commodity
servers, the price-performance of the POWER9 system was 2% higher.

Question 21 Which of the following Enterprise systems support IBM i?

Correct
Select one:
1.00 points out
of 1.00 Only the E950
Only the E980 

Both the E950 and E980

Both the E970 and E980

Question 22 The AC922 not only provides significant performance benefits for deep learning, but also when combined with
the SnapML capability of PowerAI, it has been proven to provide significant performance advantages over
Correct
other vendors' machine learning systems. As an example, how much faster were the eight POWER9 CPUs
1.00 points out
running TensorFlow and PowerAI, compared to the cluster of 89 machines running the same workload in the
of 1.00
Google Cloud?

Select one:
2 x faster
20% faster
46% faster
46x faster 

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 Question 23 The POWER9 family of systems is workload optimized to help clients deliver better performance and get more
value from their IT investments. IBM has grouped the Power Systems lines into four target workloads. Which of
Correct
the following would not be one of the best opportunities to go after with the IBM POWER9 server lines?
1.00 points out
of 1.00
Select one:
Enterprise private clouds for email and collaboration applications 

Data intensive workloads for open source, NoSQL and traditional SQL databases
Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and deep learning workloads
Big Data workloads for Hadoop and Spark applications

Question 24 POWER9 servers come standard with the latest generation PCIe interconnect (Gen4). Why is this important

Correct
when compared to Intel servers that only support the previous Gen3 specification?

1.00 points out

of 1.00 Select one:
The PCIe interconnect is used to connect CAPI devices into the server. Gen4 allows for 2x the connections
compared to Gen3, which means that more components and peripherals can be connected to POWER9
servers compared to Intel servers.
The PCIe interconnect is the bus over which CPUs and GPUs communicate. Gen4 is 3x faster than Gen3 and
so this means faster and more frequent model building for AI, machine learning, and deep learning
workloads.

The PCIe interconnect is used specifically for server to server networking and for connecting network-based
storage. With Gen4, inter-server communication and storage access speeds are greatly improved.

The PCIe interconnect is how data to be processed gets to the processor and this is typically a 
bottleneck in systems. Gen4 is 2x faster than Gen3 and so this faster data transfer has a profound
impact on the overall processing speed.

Question 25 The LC922 and LC921 are Linux only servers. Which of the following Linux distributions are supported on the
LC922 and LC921?
Correct

1.00 points out

of 1.00 Select one:
RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Enterprise Linux
RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu Linux

RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Ubuntu Linux 

RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) only

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