IBM 64-Bit PowerPC Details
Mr.Hey provides this article from Silicon Strategies which provides more detailed information on the 32-bit/64-bit implementation of the processor:
IBM's approach to implementing a 32/64-bit architecture appears straightforward. The 970 supports full 64-bit registers and addressing. When a flag bit is sent it triggers a 32-bit mode in which the high-order words on an arithmetic logic unit and on memory addresses are ignored. In either 64- or 32-bit mode, the processor issues up to eight instructions per clock cycle.
According to the article, 32-bit PowerPC OS's simply need to support new data structures and interrupt handlers, but 32-bit PowerPC apps would run unchanged.
The Register provides details from the Microprocessor Forum conference... and reports projections of SPECint2000 and SPECfp2000 scores of 937 and 1051 respectively at the 1.8GHz speed. According to this chart the 2.8GHz Pentium 4 currently has SPECint2000 and SPECfp2000 scores of 970 and 938 respectively.
Some sites are reporting that Apple will be using the new chips... but no official word is yet available.
Top Rated Comments
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Those scores should go way up with 64 bit addresses.
Anyone here ever used a Flame / Flint / Inferno? Well, those chips aren't even 1 GHz 64-bit processors, and those things do real time high-definition renders. they're absolutely insanely fast.
Just be patient. These chips should me much faster than benchmark scores indicate. I think these types of scores will be deceptive when compared to real world performance.
What this processor is likely to have is vast bandwidth, which means it will help enormously in memory throughput, which is a bottleneck far more often than processor.
Originally posted by Nipsy
Everyone seems to be missing the fact that those are processing only numbers.
What this processor is likely to have is vast bandwidth, which means it will help enormously in memory throughput, which is a bottleneck far more often than processor.
Add to that the 2 SIMD units and 16 way SMP capability. If they do it right, system performance with this CPU will be amazing.
I wouldn't be suprised if this chip is used just for the low end PowerMacs, Xserves & possibly some of the 'i' line.
Initial quantities will debut at 1.4 to 1.8Ghz, with 512kb of Level two cache. In his presentation, he (Peter Sandon) described these as "conservative" estimates.
IBM's and Apple aren't stupid, they know that Intel is oing to be way above 3Ghz by the time this gets released so I wouldn't be shocked at all if they have somthing a bit quicker up their sleeve.
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