IBM plans for POWER5 and POWER6

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outsideroutsider
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in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-892774.html?tag=fd_lede"; target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1001-892774.html?tag=fd_lede</a>;



Seems IBM is interested in pushing the PowerPC/POWER line. Lets hope Motorola and Apple get the hint.

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  • Reply 1 of 13
    programmerprogrammer Posts: 3,503member
    IBM is interested in servers, not desktop or notebook machines. Directly useful to Apple if they want to build servers, but not much otherwise. It sounds like IBM is leveraging the same kind of design modularity that Motorola is in the 8540, except in the high end space rather than the embedded space. It'll be interesting to see the approach they take -- if they have specialized functionality that is still programmable (a la shaders in graphics chips) then they could get speed and flexibility which is a powerful combination. If it is just some hardwired functionality then it isn't nearly so interesting. I wonder if they'll add SIMD while they're at it. They are also doing the hyper-threading thing (in addition to multi-core), which is good to see. Hopefully this is the kind of technology we will eventually see make its way into Apple machines... but at less than the 125 watts / $2000 per chip level.
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  • Reply 2 of 13
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    I wonder hwo much OS X Server would have to be rewritten to make it work on a Power6...
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  • Reply 3 of 13
    cowerdcowerd Posts: 579member
    [quote]IBM is interested in servers, not desktop or notebook machines.<hr></blockquote>

    Except the article states that one of IBM's mandates for the devlopment of the Power 5 and 6 is their use in blade servers--40 watts max is the typical power dissapation. That is a trickle down possibility.



    That said they are still far off in the future.
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  • Reply 4 of 13
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    They said second half of the decade. That means 2005 at the earliest. In the mean time they stated in the article that there will be versions of the POWER4 with a single core, and they would be used in systems with 1, 2, or 4 processors. Also If you look at the POWER3 family, you can expect a POWER4-II and possibly a POWER4-III. Main differences would be more cache, smaller manufacturing process, bigger L1 caches, etc.
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  • Reply 5 of 13
    overtoastyovertoasty Posts: 439member
    Ya know, I gotta wonder ... maybe some of those "insanely fast" mystery boxes that were making the super-secret hardware beta 'rounds, complete with sealed lids 'n all just a while ago ...



    ... well ya know, I gotsta wonder ... maybe Apple isn't afraid to say "WTF, this POWER4 might come in handy ..."



    I mean, it would be way out of the range of the desktop, but Apple's thinking of servers and render-boxes, BLAST machines ...



    Maybe Apple's considering the Big-Leagues?



    Rampant speculation of course, still ... ya can't knock the fantasy at least ...



    I say "Yum"
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  • Reply 6 of 13
    rambo47rambo47 Posts: 91member
    Even if Apple doesn't use the IBM Power-x chips as they are, at least it is another direction to consider. And it has the single virtue of not including Motorola. Perhaps a scaled down version will find it's way into the PowerMacs. At least the development of the chip provides possibilities.
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  • Reply 7 of 13
    boy_analogboy_analog Posts: 315member
    [quote] I wonder hwo much OS X Server would have to be rewritten to make it work on a Power6...



    <hr></blockquote>

    My understanding -- someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong -- is that the POWER4's instruction set is closer to PPC than POWER. The POWER instructions not handled by PPC are emulated in software.



    If so, I would imagine that the POWER6 would follow a similar model. And the upshot of this is that there might be very little work on the software side to support these silicon badass muthas. The mobo guys would have to put in a lot of overtime though!
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  • Reply 8 of 13
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
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  • Reply 9 of 13
    wmfwmf Posts: 1,164member
    I don't think running OS X on Power4 would be too bad; Linux seems to run really well on Power4 and it wasn't extensively modified AFAIK.
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  • Reply 10 of 13
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Anyone know the SPARC benchmarks on the POWER 4's? I remeber reading about POWER 4's in Apple's next desktop, oh 2 years ago or so and the benchmarks made my jaw drop.
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  • Reply 11 of 13
    boy_analogboy_analog Posts: 315member
    If you're looking for SPEC results, this info is easy to come by at <a href="http://www.spec.org"; target="_blank">www.spec.org</a>.



    If you're after SPARC results, you're on your own, buddy.
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  • Reply 12 of 13
    thealmightybabarammthealmightybabaramm Posts: 69member
    [quote]Anyone know the SPARC benchmarks on the POWER 4's<hr></blockquote>



    Errr...I'm not aware of any industry-standard benchmarks with that acronym.



    I AM aware of a substandard CPU ISA with that acronym: Scalable Processor ARChitecture (Architecture) . Heh.



    Edit: Redundancy, clarification



    [ 04-29-2002: Message edited by: TheAlmightyBabaramm ]</p>
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  • Reply 13 of 13
    crusadercrusader Posts: 1,129member
    Woops, look what happens when your brain messes up chips and benchmarks...
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