Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Moore's Law and IBM Power6 Chip: Combining Speed and Green


IBM announced that it has designed the world's fastest microprocessor. It runs at 4.7 gigahertz, twice the speed of its previous Power5 processor. What does it mean to a layperson? May be this referent comparison might help:

The processor bandwidth is 300 gigabytes per second. IBM said the Power6 is so fast that it can download Apple Inc.'s entire iTunes library -- which currently boasts more than 5 million songs, episodes from 350 TV show series and more than 400 movies -- in one minute. (think speed)
Another unique feature is that it uses the same amount of electricity as Power5 processor: the implication is that customers can increase their performance by 100% or reduce power consumption by 50% (think Green).

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