IBM Power 11 I/O Expansion

Gen4 PCIe I/O Expansion Drawer

A 12- or 24-slot PCIe expansion drawer that adds adapter capacity beyond a Power 11 chassis's direct PCIe slots for networking, SAN, and tape connectivity.

Every current Power 11 scale-out and enterprise model ships with only 4 direct PCIe slots on the chassis itself; the Gen4 I/O expansion drawer is how buyers add real adapter capacity for networking, SAN, and tape connectivity beyond that direct-slot ceiling.

I/O expansion drawer slots by model

ModelDirect PCIe SlotsExpansion Drawer Slots
S1122412 (1 drawer)
S1124424 x 2 drawers = 48
L1122424 (1 drawer)
L1124424 (1 drawer)
E11504 per node24 x up to 4 drawers per node
E11804 per node24 x up to 4 drawers per node