Why is IBM using Processor Value Units?
In today’s environment where different processor core technologies can have significantly different workload performance characteristics, it has become important for IBM and other middleware vendors to reflect these performance differences in software licensing. For instance, a customer would need more relatively slower processor cores to run a particular workload than they would using faster processor cores. The price a customer pays should fairly represent the potential value they can receive from those systems, which comes from the amount of possible work the processor can perform. IBM’s Processor Value Unit structure enables relative simplicity in software licensing in response to rapidly evolving hardware technologies. The two primary technology changes which created the impetus for PVU licensing were the widespread adoption of multi-core chip technology (multiple processor cores on a single silicon chip) and the evolution and increasingly widespread adoption of virtualization tec
