“That may not sound like anything special for a processor whose clock ticks at a rate approaching 5 billion times each second. But Power6 can count to 10–and perform numerous other mathematical operations–with the decimal digits 0 through 9 rather than the binary digits of 0 and 1 used by conventional computers,” Stephen Shankland reports for CNET News.
“Binary math is the ordinary mode for Power6 and a natural for computers: The two digits can conveniently be represented by voltage differences and other yes-or-no, up-or-down, on-or-off differences. But humans, graced with 10 digits, generally opted for base 10, or decimal, mathematics, and about a little more than half of numeric [data] stored in commercial databases is decimal, McCredie said,” Shankland reports.
Shankland reports, “Power6, a dual-core chip IBM will begin manufacturing this year for servers going on sale in mid-2007… The Power and PowerPC lines will grow one step closer together with Power6, which incorporates the AltiVec instruction set that speeds up many multimedia tasks. AltiVec, also known as VMX, increases efficiency by letting a single processing instruction be applied to multiple data elements. That’s helpful for video and audio tasks on desktop machines, but servers will benefit as well in, for example, high-performance computing tasks such as genetic data processing, McCredie said.”
“Adding AltiVec was a tradeoff, he said. It’s a valuable feature, but electrical current ‘leakage’ problems in today’s chipmaking technology mean that even idle parts of a chip consume power and produce waste heat,” Shankland reports. “Power6 will run at speeds of 4GHz to 5GHz, IBM has said. ‘It will be closer to 5GHz than it is to 4GHz,’ McCredie said.”
More in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Betcha we know what you’re thinking. Now, forget about it.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Keith L.” for the heads up.]
Related MacDailyNews article:
Intel pledges 80-core processor within five years – September 26, 2006
I’m thinking…. DAMMIT!!
On the other hand, running on Intels makes business sense for Apple – it gives Windoze users a security blanket while they make the switch.
I wonder if I can swap out a PowerPC G5….
We never saw 3ghz G5s like we were promised four years ago. I won’t hold my breath.
“Betcha we know what you’re thinking. Now, forget about it.”
Yeah Apple screwed up by going X86.
I want it. Who cares about my electrical bill, the move to intel was bad.
Come on everybody, remember 1984?
I’m thinking Apple is still positioned to take advantage of this better than any other company I can think of.
Here’s hoping Apple silently removes the checkboxes for Intel/PPC and just makes everything Universal by default. How cool would it be if Apple was running on BOTH PPC and Intel at the same time?
Yup, universal binaries, baby!
Intel will come out with something better.
Maybe Apple can move their server line to this architecture. Sounds like it will kick ass
I’m thinking: Yeah right, they promise a lot but never deliver.
ndelc,
exactly.
i havnt a doubt apple have done the right thing with the move to intel.
remember what steve said at the keynote a while back when they announced the move to intel. He mentioned the Intels roadmap and Apples need for processors that were the best for portable devices.
Just like the G5 if you cant fit it into a laptop, let alone anything smaller for the future, its just not worth it.
And if history is any judge even if it does debut at 5GHZ it will take 3 years, if ever, to reach 6GHZ.
Obviously it will require liquid cooling and draw 200watts making your laptop around 8″ thick.
It will also cost $2,000 in orders of 10,000 and never see any use outside of Blade servers or super-computers.
These chips WILL be delivered. They are not PowerPC chips. They also cost several thousand apiece. IBM has had no problems delivering on its Power promises.
They will also use over a couple hundred watts for the two core version. Closer to three.
Sounds delicious…
Veronica? You wouldn’t happen to be ‘THE’ Veronica, would you (as in ‘Belmont’, for those not in the know)?
The real issue here: How many applications will take advantage of their quantum computing method? Yeah…
The Intel switch was well warranted and we have fast chips now, along with a long roadmap and security. What does IBM have? More promises and a single processor line that looks too powerful to go in anything but a big tower. How would that help Apple? It wouldn’t.
It’s about the roadmap. Not what IBM THINKS it can do right now. Apple had to make a decision based on the information they had at the time. Get used to it IBM. You lose.
Intel Quad core sounds better…
What if Apple decides to add a PowerPC version of a tower to their lineup of computers? Couldn’t they do both? They already decided to support PowerPC for several years.
Mac users have been living with IBM’s better, faster crock for a decade or longer. Who knows what they promised Jobs over that time and failed to deliver. IBM has proven time and again it couldn’t care less about Apple.
Anyone who dreams of G6 has shares in Prestone.
Why can’t Intel come out with something equal or better than Altivec? From what I hear, the latest SSE tests don’t come that close to what Altivec can do.
Mark
The grass is always greener on the other side. And they still have to mow it.
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where would we be if Apple never switched? STILL WAITING is where.
Where would we be if we heard this news? STILL WAITING?
Prices would probably increase instead of decrease like they have with going to Intel.
IBM, as good as they are with other things, were always slow in getting chips to Apple, and they were loud and took up a lot of power to run.
I say the Intel move was good, and these chips, while they sound good on paper, would not be so nice if they were ever enclosed into an Apple product. We;d stlll have all the myths and all that other BS.
PERFORMANCE PER WATT
Yeah, I’m thinking that it will cost $6,000 each, and that it will consume 2,500 watts of power and require 800watts of fan power to cool it, including an exterior wall to vent the heat, or a heat exchange system to heat your house.