IBM is building a dual-architecture mainframe chip that will run Arm and Z software on the same cores
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First look: IBM is developing a mainframe chip designed to run Arm software directly alongside IBM Z and LinuxONE code. The approach could let customers add Linux, cloud and AI applications while keeping core transaction workloads on the same system.
The processor was showcased at Hot Chips 2026 and is expected to use 11 IBM Z cores built on a 2-nanometer process. IBM said the cores will operate above 5.7 GHz and support native execution of both z/Architecture and AArch64 instructions.
That's the central change here: IBM isn't placing separate Arm and Z cores on the same chip, and it isn't using emulation. Instead, Arm instruction support is being built directly into the mainframe core, with each processor core able to run Arm instructions concurrently with IBM Z or LinuxONE instructions.
The design...
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