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90nm PowerPC 970 Ready?

Friday November 21, 2003 12:01 pm PST by Arnold Kim
Appleinsider claims that the 90nm PowerPC was officially "taped out" and ready for production.



According to this report, the new chip is said to use a Strained Silicon on Insulator (SSOI) technology. The new technology offers speed boosts and decreased power requirements for upcoming chips by combining Strained Silicon and Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technology. However, according to comments from Bijan Davari, vice president of technology development at IBM Microelectronics, IBM is not planning on introducing SSOI technology until 65nm -- which is expected in 2005. This discrepancy raises some questions about the validity of this new report.



However, that being said, 90nm PowerPC 970 technology is imminent -- with IBM offering a presentation on the 90nm PowerPC 970 in February 2004 at the 2004 ISSCC Conference.



The 90nm PowerPC 970 likely represents the "GPUL2" that was referenced by eWeek in July. The GPUL2 was described to be an updated PowerPC 970 and was expected to be introduced by mid-2004.

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yoman
107 months ago
Seems far fetched to me
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Karim
107 months ago
Powerbook G5 here we come! MWSF '04 ?? I hoooope so.
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AmigoMac
107 months ago
Powerbook G5, I'm waiting for you...:D
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Ambrose Chapel
107 months ago
this would finally prove that the days of being kept down by motorola are over

for the power macs at least...
;)
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macMaestro
107 months ago
Hmm...

The CEO or AppleInsider, the CEO or AppleInsider.

Sorry, but I believe the IBM's CEO on this one. SSOI in 2005.
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nagromme
107 months ago
No PBG5 yet. Having the chips ready is ONE factor--and good for future PMG5s or even iMacs (neither of which seems likely to be refreshed as soon as Jan). But Apple has other engineering challenges to solve and work through.

My pending order for a PowerBook G4 in no way biases my predictions :)
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arn
107 months ago
small correction on the article. SSOI was not introduced in 2001. That was just Strained Silicon. SSOI is Strained Silicon + SOI.

arn
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@HomeNow
107 months ago
I wouldnt be suprised if IBM were to deliver this technology early. A year early is streatching it a bit. so I wont hold my breath.
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Lancetx
107 months ago
Yep, I'm just hoping we'll see the G5 PowerBooks and iMacs by the 2nd half of 2004 at this point. Anything sooner than that I don't think would be to realistic to expect.
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Bunzi2k4
107 months ago
i hope this is false... don't get me wrong its great to have pb g5's, but i just made a bet with my friend that powerbook g5's won't make it in wwdc 04... o well... i thought that there was gonna be new imacs, but new ones already came out... so... i don't know, what will come out in wwdc 04?
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