IBM Shows Off New PowerPC Chips

New dual-core PowerPC 970MP builds upon successes of PowerPC 970FX chip by giving double the performance of the latter.

IBM yesterday announced a new PowerPC chip during a conference in Japan. The new PowerPC 970MP is a dual core-version of IBM’s PowerPC 970FX. The computer company said it is targeted towards those who desire an inexpensive 64-bit SMP-capable system with ranges from 1.4 to 2.5 GHz.

The PowerPC 970MP builds upon IBM’s 64-bit Power Architecture family and is designed for entry level servers and the embedded marketplace. Each of the chip’s cores, according to an IBM press release, has its own dedicated 1MB L2 cache, giving double the performance of the PowerPC 970FX chip. The frequency and voltage of each core can be scaled down to reduce power during periods of less workload. In trimes of less needed performance requirements, one core can even be completely shut down.

IBM also said they were adding some new low power extensions to the PowerPC 970FX chip. This new chip offering is targeted to provide an operating power of 13W at 1.4 GHz and 16W at 1.6 GHz under typical workloads.