IBM POWER6 Unveiled at 4.7 GHz, Did Apple Make The Right Move?
Much has been made over the past few days about IBM's unveiling of the POWER6 CPU. The CPU runs at 4.7 GHz per core, and IBM claims it doubles the speed of the POWER5 while using nearly the same amount of electricity to run and cool it. IBM also claims that the speed is also nearly three times faster than the latest Itanium processor made by Intel.
Such impressive specifications have lead some to question whether Apple made the right move by moving to Intel. It is important to note however, that the POWER6 is a mid to high-end server processor. Apple, Motorola, and IBM developed PowerPC from the POWER architecture to meet the desktop PC market. Apple used such chips in its systems, including the PowerPC 970 "G5", which was derived from IBM's POWER4.
POWER processors from IBM are utilized in markets that Apple has yet to venture into: mid to high-end servers. POWER gets most of its competition from Sun's UltraSPARC and Intel's Itanium rather than low to mid-range x86-based servers, which typically use Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron processors.
Additional Reading:
POWER Architecture
PowerPC Architecture
SPARC Architecture
IA-64, aka Intel Itanium
Such impressive specifications have lead some to question whether Apple made the right move by moving to Intel. It is important to note however, that the POWER6 is a mid to high-end server processor. Apple, Motorola, and IBM developed PowerPC from the POWER architecture to meet the desktop PC market. Apple used such chips in its systems, including the PowerPC 970 "G5", which was derived from IBM's POWER4.
POWER processors from IBM are utilized in markets that Apple has yet to venture into: mid to high-end servers. POWER gets most of its competition from Sun's UltraSPARC and Intel's Itanium rather than low to mid-range x86-based servers, which typically use Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron processors.
Additional Reading:
POWER Architecture
PowerPC Architecture
SPARC Architecture
IA-64, aka Intel Itanium
Top Rated Comments
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62 months ago
Not that it's going to make any difference, but in terms of power and tech stuff alone, there's an interesting article on the Register about the release, probably on "Tuesday", of the Power6 chip from IBM running at 4.7GHz.
"average response time of .625 seconds when handling requests from 2,100 users" when crunching Oracle 11i.
IBM's Power6 spotted bashing Oracle at 4.7GHz
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/20/ibm_power6_oracle/.
I know that there's more to the Intel move than power (identity, brand, roadmap, product development, economies of scale, etc.) but an interesting development non the less.
"average response time of .625 seconds when handling requests from 2,100 users" when crunching Oracle 11i.
IBM's Power6 spotted bashing Oracle at 4.7GHz
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/20/ibm_power6_oracle/.
I know that there's more to the Intel move than power (identity, brand, roadmap, product development, economies of scale, etc.) but an interesting development non the less.
62 months ago
Wow. A G6 iMac with 4.2GHz would have been wonderful. A very serious music machine indeed.
My memory is hazy ... but wasn't there also something like a 10 core processor - 8 in use and 2 for the future that was a possibility too?
Last bit of nostalgia - didn't Freescale announce a dual core 2.0GHz laptop chip just too late?
Going with intel definately felt like presenting yer arse to the devil himself and now with Vista on Macs as well ... it's hotter than hell.
I'm on the cusp of a new machine which will inevitably be intel so my damnation is near complete.
Unless ... someone else starts making machines with these G6's and all we have to do is buy Leopard direct from Apple ... now that would be interesting. Brand new radical designs running OS X at 4.7 GHz!!!!!!
Ahhh ... Sunday morning ... feeling down. :(
My memory is hazy ... but wasn't there also something like a 10 core processor - 8 in use and 2 for the future that was a possibility too?
Last bit of nostalgia - didn't Freescale announce a dual core 2.0GHz laptop chip just too late?
Going with intel definately felt like presenting yer arse to the devil himself and now with Vista on Macs as well ... it's hotter than hell.
I'm on the cusp of a new machine which will inevitably be intel so my damnation is near complete.
Unless ... someone else starts making machines with these G6's and all we have to do is buy Leopard direct from Apple ... now that would be interesting. Brand new radical designs running OS X at 4.7 GHz!!!!!!
Ahhh ... Sunday morning ... feeling down. :(
62 months ago
Yeah and the switch to Intel has been updates every month hasn't it? Have a look at the buying guide - everything bar the Macbook needs updating. When I've said that recently people have said in reply "But to what?" QED. Intel is all tomorrow. If there was a choice between a G6 iMac @ 4.2GHz or even 4.7 GHz and an Intel@ 2.16 duo I'd go for the G6. I can get on with my art and wouldn't have to piss around with waiting for UB's, maintenance upgrades, Rosetta etc. When they do eventually get around to the next updates it will almost certainly be up from 2.16 to 2.33. Wow, overwhelming, yawn etc.
62 months ago
are we still confused by the megahertz myth? :rolleyes:
Perhaps. It's difficult to really tell what's going on without relevant tests that match your own work. Cinebench, integers er.... what? I want to know how many CPU sapping Absynths, Altiverb, Kontakts etc more I can use but I can't find anyone with a standardised test that is repeated with each revision to a model. It's only natural to be uncertain/confused by 3 generations of say a 2.0GHZ chip and each being "faster" than the previous. I mean is there going to be a speedbump from say a 2.33 C2D up to a 1.8GHz of a next gen chip? It was traditional to think that the 2.0's and the 2.16's and the 2.33's were telling you something about the performance of the chip.And the megahertz myth was Apple's own argument. Did I believe a lie? More importantly did Apple knowingly lie for years?:confused:
Without any real info on this new G6 chip we can't argue its merits either way.
62 months ago
Of course the megahertz myth is not a lie. Even Intel had to drop their stupid marketing-driven Pentium strategy.
62 months ago
POWER6 is very impressive cpu, as was power5 before it. but they are VERY hi-end cpu's, with pricetags to match. their main competitor in intel-land is the itanium. power6 would not have ended up in a mac, a cheaper derivative with less impressive specs would have. and what about laptops?
yes, appe did the right thing when they switched to intel.
yes, appe did the right thing when they switched to intel.
62 months ago
... I want to know how many CPU sapping Absynths, Altiverb, Kontakts etc more I can use but I can't find anyone with a standardised test that is repeated with each revision to a model. ...
If you find any such benchmarks or real-world measurements, let me know. They'd be interesting to see. :p
But it's not just the clock rate: Intel's SSE extensions seem to be the real performance boost kicker, in regards to Intel's digital audio processing abilities. Along with Intel's use of (shared) hearty-sized L2 cache sizes on their CPUs.
As Intel adds new SSE instructions, they introduce the ability to do more processing per CPU cycle. Audio software that takes advance of the new extensions means support for more (audio) processors running in real time. Intel's SSE4 is the next (forward) step...
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