Power5 - When can we expect to see that?

timmytimmy
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Hi I? am wondering if you have any thoughts on, when we will see Power5 technology in an Apple computer?



I?ve seen rumours about a chip from IBM called 975 is it sure that this is the PowerPC version of the Power5, or could it just be a 970 chip with enhancements and not include Power5 technology?



My last question is if OS X 10,3 will be able to take advantage of multithreading right away and get that 40% boost in speed that multithreading should be able to deliver?

If OS X can use MT from the start then this upgrade has very big potential don?t you think?



I? am looking forward to reading your thoughts on this subject!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    Isn't that a hardware feature, that should appear opaque to the operating system (much like hyerthreading on the Pentium 4)?
  • Reply 2 of 6
    blablablabla Posts: 185member
    I guess its easier to get a performance boost from MT when the cpu got a big cache, since you want to switch thread/process when you got a cache-miss?



    Also, the Power5 includes altivec, right?
  • Reply 3 of 6
    karl kuehnkarl kuehn Posts: 756member
    I seriously doubt that Power5 will ever be found in an Apple branded product. For exactly the same reasons that the rest of the Power series has never appeared in Apple's line: they are not designed with personal computers in mind. They are big, hot, power hungry, and very expensive.



    Now much of the technology behind the Power series is also behind the PowerPC series, added to a number of things that Apple wants, such as Altivec (not found in the Power series, nor useful for its main goals). So watching the development of the Power series has often presaged what will come in the PowerPC series.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    wmfwmf Posts: 1,164member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by blabla

    Also, the Power5 includes altivec, right?



    The floorplan doesn't show it.



    http://www.hotchips.org/archive/hc15/pdf/11.ibm.pdf
  • Reply 5 of 6
    oldmacfanoldmacfan Posts: 501member
    We do have an active thread already discussing this topic.



    http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=41165



    You might want to take a look and read that thread. There is a lot of good speculation in it.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    What oldmacfan said.
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