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New info on IBM's Power5 chip (G5's)

Posted by chrisd on from the z-series-are-cool dept.

phreemind writes "There's some news out today on IBM's Power5, which should make an appearance next year. Interestingly, from the sound of this article, they've put a lot of work into power consumption on this processor so that it can go in anything from blades to big iron. This may preclude the need for a specialized low-heat/power version, such as the 970, for anything other than laptops. Oh, yeah, and they hope to use it to wipe Itanium off the map. Check out the article at InfoWorld."

1 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Article title mixes up chip manufacturers by Matthias+Wiesmann · · Score: 5, Informative
    I suppose this could mean that the G5 isn't fair away though.
    Well I don't know if the G5 is not far away, but I'ma sure a G5 is not far away. A Gx is not really a product name or a processor model, it refers to a generation number.
    • The G1 was the 601, it was basically a scaled down POWER chip with still some POWER instructions.
    • The G2 were the 6xx series: 603, 604, 604e.
    • The G3 are the 7xx series: 740, 745, 750. This would also, I suppose, include the Flipper processor of Gamecubes.
    • The G4 are the 7xxx series: 7410, 7441, 7445, 7451, 7455.
    • The G5 looks like it will be the 9xx series: 970.
    As to what makes a generation change, its not very clear. From G1 to G2, there was a change in the MMU and caching structure and the removal from POWER instructions. From G2 to G3, I think the wiring changed. The only difference between G3 and G4 is Altivec. The difference between G4 and G5 will probably be numerous: 64 bits (albeit the PPC 620 already was 64 bits) and different interconnect. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong).