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IBM rolls out systems based on "fastest chip on Earth"
It's not the first time IBM has tossed around "world's fastest" language when discussing its Power6 processors, but the company's now found reason to boast again, with it recently announcing that it's released some new supercomputers based on its new "world's most powerful microprocessor." Getting that distinction is IBM's latest Power 575 "Hydro-Cluster" supercomputer which, thanks to some nifty in-rack water-cooling measures, is able to accommodate the company's speedy new 5GHz Power6 processor. According to IBM, that processor should deliver "two-to-three times the performance per core of comparable HP or Sun processors," while still requiring only about the same amount of energy as previous Power5 processors. For its part, Sun is a bit skeptical IBM's focus on speed, with a company spokesperson telling the San Francisco Chronicle that "it's an easier marketing message to deliver to say that faster gigahertz means a faster processor," adding that Sun instead focuses on multithreading to make its processors more efficient.Read - IBM press releaseRead - SFGate, "IBM chip is fastest on Earth"[Via Slashdot]
IBM kicks out energy-efficient 4.7GHz POWER6 processor
Nah, it's no BlueGene L supercomputer, but IBM's latest dual-core microprocessor runs at a cool 4.7GHz while sporting 8MB of total cache per chip. The device reportedly runs "twice as fast" and packs four times the cache as the POWER5, and boasts a processor bandwidth of 300Gbps. Interestingly, the massive power increase doesn't seem to come with a boost in energy requirements, as IBM claims that the 65-nanometer POWER6 somehow ups its game while "using nearly the same amount of electricity" as its predecessor. The company plans on shoving the new darling into the System p570 server, and preliminary testing showed that all four of the "most widely used performance benchmarks for Unix servers" were shattered by its CPU. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing nor availability just yet, but we're anticipating a bit of sticker shock when it does finally land.[Via LinuxDevices]
IBM looking to release 5GHz Power6 server chip
We concur, 5GHz isn't nearly as impressive as IBM's 500GHz microprocessor, and can't hold a candle to the Blue Gene / L supercomputer, but the company is hoping to at least give the likes of AMD, Sun Microsystems, and Intel a run for their money in the oh-so-competitive server market. While it has already been confirmed that Intel's got quad-core on its mind for next year, and AMD's possibilities are wide open now that its chips are comfortably resting within Michael Dell's boxes, IBM has some stiff opposition to topple. While its current Power5+ server chip tops out before hitting the 3GHz mark, Big Blue plans on pushing the Power6 processor to 5GHz thanks to the "65-nanometer process geometry," 75Gbps buses, and voltage thresholds "as low as 0.8 volts." For those keeping track, IBM is doubling the frequency in its new chip and cutting energy requirements by making the CPU "more efficient with improvements such as computing floating point decimals in hardware instead of software." While there's no telling how much these mighty Power6 chips will dent that IT budget, the chips are currently on track for a "mid-2007" release -- but we all know how reliable these corporate giants and their claims are aren't.
