IBM Details The World's First Dual-Architecture Processor As It Builds Its Next-Gen Dual ISA Core That Natively Executes Z & Arm Software On The Same Chip

Key Points:

• IBM announced its first dual-ISA processor core for the IBM Z and LinuxOne generation, integrating Arm ISA directly into mainframe cores to run Z and Arm software simultaneously without emulation.
• The next-generation IBM Z chip will feature 11 high-performance cores operating above 5.7 GHz using 2nm process technology, supporting both native z/Architecture and AArch64 execution on the same core.
• The chip includes a large multi-level cache system with up to 3.5 GB combined L4 cache and accelerator IPs such as on-chip DPU, AI, compression, cryptography, and sort accelerators, all accessible to the Arm ecosystem.
• IBM Z supports dual-layer virtualization, allowing workloads to run on z/OS alongside Linux workloads via KVM and OpenShift, with the new chip enabling virtual machines on both S390X/Z and Arm64 architectures.
• The next-gen IBM Z chip is currently being sent for tape-out and is expected to continue IBM’s development cadence, with no immediate plans for additional OS support beyond IBM Z and Arm Linux environments.