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PowerPC Goes 64 bit
prostoalex writes "ExtremeTech runs a story about IBM planning to introduce a new 64-bit PowerPC architecture for desktops in October at the Microprocessor Forum. The conference agenda tells us that "this processor is an 8-way superscalar design that fully supports Symmetric MultiProcessing. The processor is further enhanced by a vector processing unit implementing over 160 specialized vector instructions and implements a system interface capable of up to 6.4GB/s"." There's also a News.com story.
I requested this at IBM's PPC booth at linux world in JANUARY ;-)
what took them so long
Buttsex.
I find it amusing that the old i486 machine had
235 instructions. The "RISC" PowerPC originally
had 225 instructions. It now has 160 more
instructions. Compare this to 69 for Sparc
and 94 for MIP-Rx series of RISC processors.
Perhaps we need a new definition for "Reduced"
as it applies to the PowerPC. On the upside, at
least you can't say the PowerPC designers are
stuck on dogma =)
Personally, I'll sacrifice performance I'll never realize in return for a beautiful, intuitive, and responsive interface housed in a quiet, attractive package.
Wouldn't we all... especially if she'll do the dishes too...
If this chip is going to be used in iSeries systems, then it's actually going to be a 65-bit CPU for real, at least when run in tags-active ("OS/400") mode. Careful what you joke about!