The PowerPC 970MP: IBM’s New Dual-Core Chip
PowerPC 970MP is IBM’s new dual-core chip that is currently being utilized in Apple’s latest Power Mac G5 Quad line and will be integrated into IBM’s blade server line in Q1 2006.
According to Norman Rohrer, a senior engineer at IBM, the PowerPC 970MP can save energy in numerous ways. One of the key features of this chip is that one of its two cores can shut down when not in use. Additionally, the chip can reduce its frequency by 25%.
These features have enabled the PowerPC 970MP to lower its power consumption from a maximum of 100 watts down to 60 watts, and even as low as 40 watts. The PowerPC 970MP can operate in a low power mode to save energy at a minimum of 3-5 watts.
Each core of the PowerPC 970MP has its own dedicated 1MB of high-speed cache memory. This feature allows the chip to disable one core when it is not in use.
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