POWER6™ UNLEASHED

New IBM processor doubles speed without adding to energy footprint, enabling customers to reduce electricity consumption by almost half; bandwidth to download entire iTunes catalog (5,000,000 tracks) in 60 seconds.

LONDON (IBM) -- IBM today simultaneously launched the fastest microprocessor ever built and an ultra-powerful new computer server that leverages the chip's many breakthroughs in energy conservation and virtualization technology. The new server is the first ever to hold all four major benchmark speed records for business and technical performance.

At 4.7 GHz the dual-core POWER6™ processor doubles the speed of the previous generation POWER5™ while using nearly the same amount of electricity to run and cool it. Customers can use the new processor to either increase their performance by 100 percent or cut the power consumption virtually in half.

World's Fastest Chip

IBM's new 2- to 16-core server also offers three times the performance per core of the HP Superdome machine based on the key TPC-C benchmark. The processor speed of the POWER6™ chip is nearly three times faster than the latest HP Itanium processor that runs HP's server line. The processor bandwidth of the POWER6™ chip - 300 gigabytes per second - can download the complete iTunes catalog in 60 seconds - 30 times faster than HP's Itanium.

Benchmark Grand Slam

Demonstrating its remarkable versatility, the new IBM System p 570 running the POWER6™ processor claims the number one spots in the four most widely used performance benchmarks for Unix servers.

1. TPC-C - measures transaction processing capability.
2. SPECfp2006 - measures floating point calculating throughput required for scientific applications.
3. SPECint2006 - measures integer calculating throughput common in business applications.
4. SPECjbb2005 - measures Java™ performance in business operations per second.

This is the first time a single system has owned all four categories. The new System p 570 now holds 25 benchmark records across a broad portfolio of business and technical applications.

Convention-Shattering Design

The POWER6™ chip in the new IBM System p™ 570 server owns a number of industry firsts. It is the first UNIX microprocessor able to calculate decimal floating point arithmetic in hardware. Until now, calculations involving decimal numbers with floating decimal points were done using software. The built-in decimal floating point capability gives tremendous advantage to enterprises running complex tax, financial and ERP programs.

The POWER6™ processor is built using IBM's 65 nanometer process technology. Coming at a time when experts have predicted an end to Moore's Law which holds that processor speed doubles every 18 months, the IBM breakthrough is driven by a host of technical achievements scored during the five-year research and development effort to develop the POWER6™ chip.

The POWER6™ chip includes techniques to conserve power and reduce heat generated by POWER6™ processor based servers. Processor clocks can be dynamically turned off when there is no useful work to be done, and turned back on when there are further instructions to be executed.

See Also
The Power of Six: Introducing the New IBM System p™ 570
IBM Unleash World's Fastest Chip in Powerful New Computer