Presentation of the POWER6 at ISSCC (free slides with every thread read)

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Farid

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http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2007/0215/isscc04.htm

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We'll wait for reports in English and/or that fellow member takes some time to sum up the article for us. Ars has a short write up on the processor unveilling.

The leakage is really high, by the way. It's a natural result of operating at such frequency, I guess.

Note that I decided to start this thread in the console forums because of the intricate bonds that exist between IBM and the console makers these days. So, part of the speculation about future console CPUs can reasonably be related to current and future CPU researches from IBM.
 
Memory interfaces look decent despite its most likely target market (SMP servers). Reasonably separate communication paths. How IBM chooses to architect systems around these CPUs will also be interesting although I haven't heard anything in particular on the grapevine.
 
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Megadrive1988 said:
mmmmmm....

maybe Microsoft will license the POWER6 core to be the basis of the cores that go into XCPU3 / Xenon's successor?
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I somehow doubt that it will be very similar. It may be a derivative of some sort, but it doesn't need the extensive RAS features which take up a substantial chunk of space. I don't think a console CPU would need a decimal unit either. It's also made to clock very high and leaks power like crazy.


Pigman BABY!!! said:
So how does this Power6 compare to a Cell?
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Completely different processor for a completely different market. Cell is an in-order streaming/parallel-processing monster, this beast is OoO and looks like it will tear through individual threads. Plus the stuff i said above.
 
Farhan said:
I somehow doubt that it will be very similar. It may be a derivative of some sort, but it doesn't need the extensive RAS features which take up a substantial chunk of space. I don't think a console CPU would need a decimal unit either. It's also made to clock very high and leaks power like crazy.



Completely different processor for a completely different market. Cell is an in-order streaming/parallel-processing monster, this beast is OoO and looks like it will tear through individual threads. Plus the stuff i said above.
Click to expand...

Better question:

Will AMD and Intel have something comparable by the time this hits market? I believe their current processors are competitive with Power5 in net performance.
 
Rangers said:
What market is there for this without Macs?

Just consoles and..?
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POWER line is about servers generally, and then they are adapted to other markets. The processors used in past Macs were PowerPC chips, which are related in ways to the POWER CPUs. I'm trying to really make a connection between this and consoles, I can "sort" of see it as speculation but by the sounds of it and the timeframe this chip would certainly have to drop tons in the power usage and heat output for it to even be considered by consoles, IMO. I expect a future Cell to go into the "PS4" and who knows what into a future Xbox or Wii or whateverz.
 
Skrying said:
POWER line is about servers generally, and then they are adapted to other markets. The processors used in past Macs were PowerPC chips, which are related in ways to the POWER CPUs. I'm trying to really make a connection between this and consoles, I can "sort" of see it as speculation but by the sounds of it and the timeframe this chip would certainly have to drop tons in the power usage and heat output for it to even be considered by consoles, IMO. I expect a future Cell to go into the "PS4" and who knows what into a future Xbox or Wii or whateverz.
Click to expand...

I'll take 4 of these in Xbox 720.
 
Fox5 said:
Better question:

Will AMD and Intel have something comparable by the time this hits market? I believe their current processors are competitive with Power5 in net performance.
Click to expand...

I think the itanium is its only real competitor in this market. While the other processors may be able to compete in terms of performance, none of them have quite the extensive RAS capabilities required.
 
Rangers said:
What market is there for this without Macs?

Just consoles and..?
Click to expand...

The best IBM chip the Mac saw was the G5, a Power4 based processor. This processor's Mac derivative would have been many many years off, probably close to a decade, if Apple were still using IBM.
I doubt this chip will ever see a derivative in a console.

Xbox360 didn't use G5s so why would Xbox720 use G6s?
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Uh, this processor wouldn't have been a G6, if anything it'd have been a future G7.

While the other processors may be able to compete in terms of performance, none of them have quite the extensive RAS capabilities required.
Click to expand...

What does RAS mean?
Anyhow, doesn't Intel have plans to unify the Itanium and Xeon lines sometime in the future?
 
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