IBM i's first 2026 tech refresh lands, with a new entry server

IBM i 7.6 TR2 and 7.5 TR8, IBM’s first Technology Refresh of 2026, finally shipped on July 24, three months later than the usual spring window. Bundled with it: the Power S1112, the entry-level Power11 machine IBM i shops on older hardware have been waiting on since the rest of the Power11 lineup launched a year ago. If you skipped the last couple of refreshes, this one has enough in it to be worth your attention, and enough hardware news attached to change your upgrade timeline either way.

Why the delay

IBM has run a two-TR-a-year cadence since 2010, typically April and October. This year’s spring TR didn’t land until mid-July, and IBM told the community back in April that it was coming late. The reason, according to IT Jungle’s reporting, is straightforward: IBM wanted the new entry Power server announced before it shipped OS support for it. You can’t add hardware support to a TR for a machine that doesn’t officially exist yet.

Both were announced the same day, July 15, and both became generally available July 24. That’s IBM i 7.6 TR2 and IBM i 7.5 TR8.

What’s actually in the TR

Security. The headline item is Bring Your Own Key (BYOK), added to IBM i Cryptographic Services via IBM Cloud Key Protect, but only on 7.6 TR2, not 7.5. This matters if you’re running IBM i in the cloud and have a compliance requirement for external key management, or if you just want that option available on-prem. Both releases also picked up OAuth 2.0 support for the integrated SMTP server, which is less exciting but more immediately useful: Google and Microsoft 365 have been tightening authentication requirements, and IBM i’s mail server needed to catch up to keep working with them.

There’s also a new CVE_INFO table function in SYSTOOLS that polls the CVE database and returns vulnerabilities relevant to your specific release, complete with severity scores. It’s a small thing, but it’s the kind of small thing that saves someone an afternoon of manually cross-referencing PTF guides, similar in spirit to the manual CVE and PTF tracking most shops still do every month.

Database. Seventeen new IBM i services landed across SYSTOOLS and QSYS2, with ten more enhanced. The one worth knowing about is CREATE_DATA_JOURNAL_READER, a scalar function that generates a helper function for reading journaled database change entries. If you’ve ever had to decode journal entries for a table and found yourself staring at hex-encoded row images, this removes that step. You call the generated function against a journaled file and get readable output instead of raw hex.

Access Client Solutions. ACS moves to version 1.1.9.13 as part of this TR, adding support for the SQL Error Logging Facility (SELF) inside Run SQL Scripts, along with new security-focused SQL examples: who created objects in the IFS root, which IFS directories are exposed to attack, who owns the IFS home directory. If you’re the person who gets asked “how secure is our IFS” once a quarter, these examples are a starting point instead of a blank SQL script. For a broader look at what ACS does well and where it falls short, see our full Access Client Solutions review.

Navigator for i. Hundreds of Performance Data Investigator charts moved from the old Dojo framework to Angular, matching what “New Nav” already uses elsewhere. It also picked up support for viewing and exchanging Jupyter notebooks through the Code for i database extension, so query output can render as an actual chart instead of a raw table.

Migrate While Active. MWA, the tool for migrating IBM i workloads to PowerVS (or on-prem) while they keep running, added support for external storage-based replication (FlashCopy, Global Copy) and the ability to run an OS upgrade as part of the migration itself. If cloud migration is on your roadmap, this closes a gap that used to require a separate upgrade step, and it’s worth reading alongside what actually happens when IBM i shops migrate to modern architecture before you commit to a timeline.

What changed for developers

RPG picked up two new operation codes, ASSERT-F and ASSERT-T, plus a new ASSERT control option to configure how they behave. There’s wildcard support for message IDs in MONITOR statements now, so you don’t need a separate MONITOR clause for every message ID variant you want to catch. DCL-S’s LIKE keyword now accepts either the system short name or the long name for an external field, which fixes a small but persistent annoyance for anyone working with externally described files that have both.

Two new built-ins, %LOOKUPNE and %TLOOKUPNE, search an array for the first element that does not match the search value, the inverse of the lookup functions RPG developers already know. And the Program Status Data Structure finally gets job type and subtype fields, which is the kind of thing that should have been there years ago and now is.

On the CL and SQL side, 7.6 TR2 gets a new QIBM_IOSYSCFG_DDM function usage as an alternative to granting a user profile *IOSYSCFG special authority outright, a narrower way to grant that specific capability without the broader authority attached. There’s also a new CHECK_COMMAND_SYSNTAX scalar function to validate CL command syntax before you run it, new JOB_USER, JOB_NAME, JOB_NUMBER, and JOB_NAME_DETAILS functions to pull apart a qualified job name, and QCMDEXC can now optionally write the CL command it executes to the job log, which is useful for anyone who’s ever had to reconstruct what a program actually ran after the fact.

The Power S1112: the entry box that took a year to show up

The rest of the Power11 lineup launched in July 2025. The P05-tier entry machine didn’t, and IBM i shops running older Power8 or Power9 hardware in the lowest software tier had nothing to move to. The Power S1112, code-named “Bonnell+,” fills that gap. It uses the same half-width 2U enclosure as the Power10-based S1012 it replaces, but moves to DDR5 OMI memory and picks up the processor and performance-per-watt gains that came with the rest of the Power11 family.

There are two processor card options. Feature #EJMT runs one to four Power11 cores at a base 3.6 GHz (4 GHz turbo) and can be permanently downgraded to a single active core to qualify for the P05 software tier. Feature #EJSV activates 10 of the chip’s 16 cores at a base 3.05 GHz and sits in the P10 tier instead. IBM rates the machine at twice the per-core performance of the Power S914 Mini and three times that of the Power S814 Mini, which gives you a sense of how much headroom is sitting in even a modest Power11 config.

Memory tops out at 256 GB across four slots, storage at 12.8 TB across four NVMe bays, and there are four PCIe 4.0 slots, two x16 and two x8. None of that is class-leading for 2026, but it’s a real jump from the Power9 and Power10-era boxes it’s replacing.

One thing you won’t find yet: a price. As of IT Jungle’s reporting the week it started shipping, the Power S1112 wasn’t listed on IBM’s IBM i system pricing page. Given how much memory and flash costs have risen since demand for AI infrastructure spiked, don’t assume this lands cheaper than its predecessor. It probably won’t.

The compatibility trap nobody’s talking about

IBM i 7.6 doesn’t run on Power9. That follows the same pattern as 7.5 dropping Power8 support and 7.4 dropping Power7. If you’re a software vendor certifying against IBM i releases, or a shop planning to stay a release behind to avoid churn, this is worth sitting with: waiting for “the next TR” isn’t free if your hardware won’t carry forward to the OS version that TR requires. A reader comment on IT Jungle’s Power S1112 coverage put it plainly: vendors don’t want to certify against hardware they’ll have to replace again in two years, and shops that keep deferring both the OS and the hardware upgrade eventually get squeezed into doing both at once, under worse timing than they’d choose themselves.

Should you upgrade now or wait for fall

If you’re already on IBM i 7.5 or 7.6 and current-generation Power hardware, there’s no urgency here. Nothing in this TR is a must-have unless BYOK’s cloud key management requirement applies to you directly, or you’re actively building against the new database services. Apply it on your normal patch cycle.

If you’re still running Power8 or Power9 hardware, treat this TR announcement as a prompt to actually schedule the hardware conversation, not to ignore it again. The Power9-to-7.6 wall isn’t hypothetical, and the Power S1112 is now the answer for a P05-tier refresh, pricing notwithstanding. Waiting for the fall TR doesn’t change that math. It just delays the conversation by three months you don’t get back.

Bottom line

This TR is incremental, not transformative, and IBM would probably say the same. The security and database additions are solid, useful work rather than headline features, and the RPG changes are the kind of quality-of-life fixes developers will appreciate without anyone writing a press release about them. The bigger story is the Power S1112 finally closing the P05 gap in the Power11 lineup, and the quiet compatibility pressure building for anyone still running Power8 or Power9. If that’s you, this TR is your reminder that the clock is real, even without a price tag attached to the hardware yet. If you’re weighing a broader modernization plan alongside the hardware decision, the IBM i AI Field Guide walks through where AI tooling actually fits into that process.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s new in IBM i 7.6 TR2 that isn’t in 7.5 TR8?

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) support in Cryptographic Services, the QIBM_IOSYSCFG_DDM function usage as an alternative to granting *IOSYSCFG special authority, and the new CHECK_COMMAND_SYSNTAX scalar function are 7.6 TR2 only. If you’re still on 7.5, you got most of the database and RPG changes but not these three.

When did IBM i 7.6 TR2 and 7.5 TR8 become available?

IBM announced both on July 15, 2026, and general availability was July 24, 2026. That’s later than IBM’s usual spring window, which normally lands in April. IBM flagged the delay back in April, tying it to the new entry Power server announcement.

Does the Power S1112 replace the Power S1012?

Yes, functionally. The S1112 is the Power11-based successor to the Power10 “Bonnell” S1012, using the same half-width 2U enclosure. It’s the first Power11 machine in the P05 IBM i software tier, since the rest of the Power11 lineup launched back in July 2025 without a low-end option.

How much does the Power S1112 cost?

IBM had not published pricing for the Power S1112 as of the week it started shipping. Component costs across the industry, memory and flash especially, have risen sharply since the GenAI demand spike, so expect the entry price to land higher than prior generations rather than lower.