IBM to unleash new PowerPC chip

[AmigaMac]

On present SPEC benchmark, Power4 1 GHz is comparable to Pentium 4 2 GHz. I wonder if 970 1.8 GHz is comparable to P4 3.6 GHz.

Helk even a G4 at 1 GHz is comparible to a P4 at 2 GHz in most real world benchmarks... these were quite interesting with the new 1.25 GHz G4s:

http://www.barefeats.com/pentium4.html

I think the new Power4 based PowerPC 64bit CPU will do much better!  I can't wait to see some benchmarks of AOS4 and the AmigaOne in action!

[AmigaMac]

Real World? P4 and Athlon are much faster than any current Mac by more than 2-3 times. I read several articles comparing a P4 2.5 Ghz against a double 1Ghz processor mac, and Mac didn't even come close...as in, it was half the speed.

Yeah maybe in SPEC, but not Real World... P4s and G4s are neck in neck and various benchmarks show that fact... one wins this and the other wins that!  What you're reading is the propaganda FUD spread mostly by PC zealot/tech writers!

[AmigaMac]

In any case I'm all for competition and I'm happy to see new PPC chip and I hope they do surpass Intel some day.

Well PPC surpassed x86 when it was conceived and it will do it again since the emphasis is more focused on performance than energy efficiency!  The only reason Intel has a leg up on IBM/Motorola is the total I/O implementation built around the CPU, which is more up-to-date and has 3 times the bandwidth (RAM/FSB)... imagine if the G3s and G4s had that bandwidth to play with?!

[AmigaMac]

So you comparing a 8086 to Power1? Intel back at time didn't apply RISC techniques to their CPUs.

Actually I'm talking about the PowerPC 601!

“Energy efficiency” was a recent re-positioning for the said product.

But it has been the last few years due to targeting the embedded market and has been the primary focus of IBM (and even Motorola) until now!

It would be pointless since the current G3 and G4 communicates with the out world side @133Mhz.

Why would you not increase the bandwidth around the CPU if the architecture allowed that possibility?!

Secondly, G4 has a massive 512kb L2 cache to compensate some of the problem e.g. OpenSSL's core routines should fitting nicely.

The Pentium 4 has 512kb L2 cache as well!

Note that Athlon XP has yet to have the 512 L2 treatment unlike the G4.

Yeah but the Athlon MP is the only one that is designed with its memory cache cross-strapped... I think that's a great advantage!

Are you implying that AmigaOne HW can mount IBM’s new chip?

Well unless EyeTech has changed its CPU strategy, I am assuming the G3s/G4s will come as expected!

[AmigaMac]

Hammer read his name "AmigaMac", you can see why he says what he says don't you? Those post don't require responses, they are self-answering.

Never judge a book by its cover... I own/use both platforms on top of what I use at work (Suns/PCs)!