IBM announced two new PowerPC chips designed for entry-level servers and PCs at a company event in Tokyo on Thursday.The ironic part is that the the 970FX would have been perfect for the PowerBook G5. According to CNet:
The PowerPC 970MP is a dual-core version of the PowerPC 970FX, which is commonly found in Macintosh computers running G5 processors. IBM also said it will release a low-power version of the PowerPC 970FX.
What’s novel about the PowerPC 970MP’s design is that each of the two 64-bit cores has its own dedicated 1MB of level-two cache memory. That means that either side of the chip can be powered down to a state IBM calls “doze” while the other core continues to work. The technique helps save power and extends the life of the computer, IBM said.
AppleInsider goes into more detail:
Two variants of the chip — a 1.2GHz version and a 1.4GHz version — consume an approximately 13 watts of power, believed to be cool enough to operate inside a PowerBook enclosure with an advanced cooling system. A high-end 1.6GHz version consumes 16 watts.
By comparison, Freescale’s recently introduced MPC7448 PowerPC G4, the successor to the chip used in Apple’s current PowerBook G4 systems, will consume about 10 watts of power running at 1.4GHz, and just under 15 watts of power at its top speed of 1.7GHz.
IBM announced two new PowerPC chips designed for entry-level servers and PCs at a company event in Tokyo on Thursday.The ironic part is that the the 970FX would have been perfect for the PowerBook G5. According to CNet:
The PowerPC 970MP is a dual-core version of the PowerPC 970FX, which is commonly found in Macintosh computers running G5 processors. IBM also said it will release a low-power version of the PowerPC 970FX.
What’s novel about the PowerPC 970MP’s design is that each of the two 64-bit cores has its own dedicated 1MB of level-two cache memory. That means that either side of the chip can be powered down to a state IBM calls “doze” while the other core continues to work. The technique helps save power and extends the life of the computer, IBM said.
AppleInsider goes into more detail:
Two variants of the chip — a 1.2GHz version and a 1.4GHz version — consume an approximately 13 watts of power, believed to be cool enough to operate inside a PowerBook enclosure with an advanced cooling system. A high-end 1.6GHz version consumes 16 watts.
By comparison, Freescale’s recently introduced MPC7448 PowerPC G4, the successor to the chip used in Apple’s current PowerBook G4 systems, will consume about 10 watts of power running at 1.4GHz, and just under 15 watts of power at its top speed of 1.7GHz.
