IBM Shares Plans for 64-Bit PowerPC Processor

IBM is preparing a 1.8-GHz PowerPC processor, its fastest to date, that will run both 64-bit and 32-bit applications, the company said Monday.

The PowerPC 970 processor, due out in the second half of 2003, will dethrone the 1-GHz PowerPC 750FX as IBM's fastest PowerPC chip, IBM spokesperson Rupert Deighton says.

PowerPC processors are used in low-end IBM servers and in Apple Computer systems. Special versions of the chips are also found embedded in storage hardware, printers, and specialized industrial computers.

The PowerPC 970 sports a 900-MHz bus and support for multiple processors in one system. The bus in a computer links the processor and the internal memory, while multiple processors working in tandem boost a system's processing power.

IBM declines to say whether Apple will use the PowerPC 970, but industry insiders say it is very likely that Apple will. Nobody at Apple was immediately available for comment.

Better Performance

Sixty-four-bit processors can handle twice as many bits of information in the same clock cycle as the 32-bit processors common in desktop computers today. Video and graphics editors, for example, could benefit from the extra power. However, applications have to be specifically designed to make use of the 64-bit architecture.

"Sixty-four-bit works well for the multimedia, Internet kind of applications that are now becoming the staple diet for PCs," says Deighton.

Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are both readying 64-bit processors for regular PCs. AMD's processors are based on the x86 architecture as opposed to PowerPC's RISC architecture. Intel's 64-bit chips, codeveloped with Hewlett-Packard, have been developed using new chip technology that incorporates the Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) instruction set. Sixty-four-bit processors are already used in servers for memory or data-intensive applications such as databases.

IBM will produce the PowerPC 970 in its new facility in East Fishkill, New York, on 300 millimeter wafers using its 0.13-micron silicon-on-insulator process. IBM says SOI better insulates the approximately 52 million transistors, boosting performance and limiting power consumption.

IBM will provide further details of the PowerPC 970 this week at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, California.