IBM tries ARM-style Licensing of PPC Processors

[Blizz1220]

Maybe it's just me but the keyword here is not IBM or PowerPC it's NVidia and possibly Google ...

You don't need latest GPU integrated on a PPC SoC to use it in routers ...

Does anyone know how compatible new Power8 is to say G5 ?

[Blizz1220]

AFAIK this isn't about PPC.  PPCs have been licensable for years.

This is about POWER processors.  These have never been openly licensed.
These are high end server processors, not embedded chips (though they probably are used in some very specialist IBM embedded stuff).

IBM has been pushing POWER prices down recently to compete with Intel.
Intel are going to get a lot of competition soon from ARM so Intel will want to push upwards into high end systems.  This is where IBM live and they're fighting back.

So the compatibility to PowerPC doesn't exist at all ?

And how is backwards compatibility to Power6,5 and 4 generation ?

The thing that gets me confused about this is that I remember that an one time Power merged with PowerPC (can't really say I understood what that means) and the thing that really makes no sense to me is how is PPC Linux compatible to these Power workstations if they are completely different things ?

[Blizz1220]

No they're compatible, POWER is generally a superset of PowerPC nowadays. This wasn't always quite the case but it has been for at least the last few iterations.

Hmmmm ... So G5 and PA Semis are Power4 generation (or Power5?) ...

So if somebody was to make a PowerPC CPU out of coming Power8 how
compatible would that be to Mac G5 processor ?

Are we talking difference between 68k and Coldfire or the difference between 68k and PPC or even worst ?  :huh:

[Blizz1220]

You wouldn't be using the same Linux distro on a PowerPC and POWER processor anyway.

Now I get it ...

[Blizz1220]

The G5 is based on POWER4 with Altivec.
The PA6T is Power ISA v.2.04, POWER6 is Power ISA v.2.03.
 
 
It's more like the difference between a Cyrix 486 and a Pentium 2.

PA6T is a G5 derivative and G5 is Power4 derivative that much I do know ...

PA6T was made to be used by Apple in laptops because G5 had cooling problems but they are otherwise almost identical ...

[Blizz1220]

There more to story. I found out that IBM sold their repair part that my cousin worked for. I believe they just trying to survive.

Just noticed you post ...

Well no wonder they're going down after all the mistakes they made , I still can't figure out what are they doing with Power now except servers :insane:

They invented x86 and then they got cloned by far east companies and then they invented PPC and they didn't even try to make it cheaper by third party manufacturing and they lost that chance too ...

If NVidia has something to do with Power8 it means consoles (game market) , if Google wants something to do with this it means Tablets and Netbooks (Internet market) ...

Question I'm dying to get an answer to by somebody who knows a lot more of CPUs than me is will Power8 generation allow for easy migration of Morphos (and AOS 4 ) to the newly created gizmos (assuming that IBM makes them , I though they were doing Cell now) such as Power8 based game consoles , laptops and other hypothetical things ?

[Blizz1220]

No, they have different heritage. It might have been designed as a G5 replacement, in the same way a 486 was a 386 replacement. Doesn't mean that one was derived from the other.

Hmmmmm , yes now I kinda see it ...

Something like Pentium and Pentium M(obile) if Pentium M was made by  third party manufacturer ...

I can see Google going for the servers but I don't understand what NVidia gains by implementing Power unless they aim for the consoles ...

Is GPU somehow useful in a high end server ?

[Blizz1220]

The whole point of project Denver was for nVidia to have a CPU+GPU combo to sell to the HPC market.
Before that, nVidia spent years trying to get a x86 license for the same purpose. And now they'll use IBM's POWER and ARM Denver....

Ah now I understand all of it ...

Read the article again and I think it was misleading ...

So no chance in hell would be the answer to my questions