IBM Intros Power5 Server

[ltgator333]

I just hope they don't become to Motorola-like. The latest news didn't sound too good. Let's hope these new processor will evolve (soon) to a desktop version for Apple. Imagine 3.5GHz processors with SMT...

Edit: Does anyone wonder why these chips are manufactured by 0.13-micron and SOI-technology and not 0.09 and SSOI?

I totally agree with this comment ... if IBM doesn't stop dragging their feet, Freescale (formerly Moto..) does have a decent fabrication facility now and might gain some ground and make apple look bad for choosing IBM over them......
dual 3.5Ghz PPC 970fx's would be a killer system as it is, even without the SMT and enhancements of being based off the POWER5..
AND- IBM is making that chip on their 130nm process because it's a proven, rock solid process, as where they're still getting the kinks out of the 90nm process. I beleive if you read ars-technica's review of POWER 5's predecessor, POWER 4, they outline how IBM is very concerned about their POWER series server chips being physically indistructable, to the point of the physical build of the chip is unnecessarily "beefy", kind of like an armoured truck or something. So they will use the proven and totally stable 130nm process over the 90nm probably for a while.

 

[ffakr]

Man, if only it were .13nm... We could have, what, 80ghz processors then? 😉

actually, we'd probably have issues squeezing the electrons through.
.13 nm is 1.3 x 10^-10 Meters while a diameter of an electron is thought to be somewhere in the area of 5 x 10^-15.
that's plenty big enough for an electron, but like charges do repell each other. I'm sure we'll see plenty of crazy phenomenon before we get near that small (and god knows what we'll need to use to make chips like that).