IBM Gives Details on Octo-Core Power7 Processor
IBM Gives Details on Octo-Core Power7 Processor
Posted 08/26/2009 at 12:01pm
| by Paul Lilly
7
Comments
Print
The CPU wars in the desktop market have grown pretty stale with Intel's Core i7 architecture kicking AMD's tail, but when it comes to the server sector, the battle is starting to heat up.
Enter IBM, who at this week's Hot Chips conference officially unveiled its muscular 8-core Power7 processor. The mighty chip is expected to pack 1.2 billion transistors onto a 45nm die. Each core will boast 12 execution units, as well as 32 threads per chip and advanced pre-fetching data and instruction sets.
"I am sure Power7 will be the fastest processor around, probably faster than Intel's Nehalem in some benchmarks," said Nathan Brookwood, principal of market watcher Insight64.
Other specs include scalability up to 32 sockets, 256KB L2 cache per core, 32MB of on chip eDRAM shared L3 cache, dual DDR3 memory controllers, 100GB/s memory bandwidth per chip, and 360GB/s SMP bandwidth per chip.
Image Credit: IBM via TGDaily
More like this
comptech08
August 26, 2009 at 2:25pm
the number 7 seems to be way to go in marketing. Windows 7, Intel corei7, IBM power 7. Whats up with 7, is it just because its lucky? lol
t0r012
August 26, 2009 at 3:03pm
this is the 7th generation of this ibm processor. this wil replace the power6 . the only one that i don't think is the 7th is the i7 from intel, but i could be wrong.
I'd love to have this in a desktop , considering it is rummored to run a 4ghz
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/report_ibms_eightcore_power7_chip_come_clocked_4ghz
DBsantos77
August 27, 2009 at 4:00pm
Also, I don't think Windows 7 is the 7th version, can't say for sure but I read something about it a while back.
t0r012
August 26, 2009 at 3:09pm
considering AMD is getting thier butt kicked on the highend desktop , and they have a relationship with IBM I am holding out hope to see an amd version for the highend desktop.
QUINTIX256
August 26, 2009 at 3:27pm
People keep forgetting: there is a reason why you don't see PowerPC on the desktop anymore; there is a reason why it is isolated to the Server and game console market, and there is a reason why Apple abandoned the PowerPC architecture that they helped develop.
PowerPC is far more comparable to the "Itanic" than the x86. Sure, it offers quite a bit of raw throughput, but only provides so much flexibility in terms of what can be done with that throughput. This is somewhat due to the fact that it is a RISC based architecture. Sure, you could argue that the x86 now has risc-like bits in it, but fundamentally x86 is not risc.
You can have your recession. I'm not participating.
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
We introduce Intel's latest class of tablet killers and review 4 of the first Ultra...
Where have all the memorable videogame enemies gone?
This month's issue
Feature
11 Hardware Hacks
Feature
Overclock Your CPU
How-To
Supercharge Your Smartphone
Build It
A Powerful $830 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Analysts: 9-Inch Kindle Fire This Summer http://t.co/QDYApwCZ4 hours 54 min ago
- maximumpc: Micron: DRAM Prices Likely as Low as They're Going to Get http://t.co/fFUWuFOm7 hours 51 min ago
- maximumpc: Yar, Mateys! All Of Pirate Bay Made Available As A Single 90MB Zip File http://t.co/j5LHlXEZ9 hours 5 min ago
