IBM Readies World's Fastest Microprocessor

As global connectivity and data proliferate, IBM (News - Alert) Corp. (www.ibm.com) has readied a new mainframe computer called zEnterprise 196 capable of executing more than 50 billion instructions per second (BIPS) to handle the growing number of business transactions. The computer giant is planning to begin shipping this new mainframe on September 10.

The computer is powered by 96 microprocessors with clock speeds up to 5.2 GHz. At 5.2 GHz, IBM claims that the microprocessor used in the new version of the IBM mainframe system is the world’s fastest. Eighty of the 96 processors are configurable cores, as per the ZEnterprise data sheet.

The z196 processor, which is a four-core chip comprising 1.4 billion transistors on a 512-square millimeter surface, was designed by IBM engineers in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and was fabricated using the company’s 45 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) processor technology. IBM said that major contributions to the z196 processor development came from IBM labs in Austin, TX, Germany, Israel and India.

According to IBM, the new zEnterprise technology is the result of an investment of more than $1.5 billion in IBM research and development in the zEnterprise line, as well as more than three years of collaboration with some of IBM's top clients around the world.

Additionally, the mainframe processor also uses IBM's patented embedded DRAM (eDRAM) technology, which allows the developer to place dense DRAM caches, or components, on the same chips as high-speed microprocessors, resulting in improved performance.

This new IBM microprocessor technology has new software to optimize performance of data-heavy workloads, including up to a 60 percent improvement in data intensive and Java workloads. Increased levels of system performance, in turn, increases software performance, which can reduce software license costs.  

The new system offers 60 percent more capacity than its predecessor, the System z10, and uses about the same amount of electricity.    

According to IBM, energy efficiencies were achieved through advances in microprocessor design, 45 nm silicon technology, more efficient power conversion and distribution, as well as advanced sensors and cooling control firmware that monitors and makes adjustments based on environmental factors such as temperature and humidity levels and even air density.  

The combination of zEnterprise chip speed, memory, system reliability, availability, security and storage architecture provides an optimal environment for managing the world's most demanding workloads.

Last week, at the Hot Chips 22 conference, IBM designers unwrapped plans for a petaflops-class supercomputer built from as many as 64,000 Power7 processors. As per IBM’s paper described on EETimes web site (http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4206456/IBM-describes-Power7-supercomputer), the supercomputer design implements a Terabit per second (Tbps) optical links to the system's main processor boards. The supercomputer is being built under a U.S. government program geared to create a new class of supercomputers that cost less, use less power yet are easier to program than today's systems.