Power 5 to hit 3GHZ, but thats just for starters

[minator]

That's maybe true IF Intel did not apply any IPC increases with their designs...

The P4 actually decreased IPC by around a third.  The P4 at 1.5GHz was beaten by a P3 at 1GHz.

Thats how the 970 at 2GHz gives the P4 a good run for it's money at 3GHz.

When the POWER5+ "consumer version" appears (second revision of the 980?)  it should be I'd guess around 3.5GHz, don't know where Intel will be but I suspect by then the IBM will be outgunning them performance wise.  If the 980 (or whatever it's called) has the same enhancements as the POWER5 it'll leave even the 970 in the dust.

[minator]

The Power5 is a multicore server chip which is incredibily powerful and leaves a Pentium IV in the dust even if it ran at 12 Ghz.

Well, it hasn't yet, and that's matching clock for clock.

Heh,
A 1.5GHz POWER4+ can outgun a P4 running at 3.2GHz...

And thats on SPEC FP marks where Intel gets to throw in it's favorite compiler...

[minator]

How can you conclude "IBM will be outgunning them performance wise" then you haven't satisfied "don't know where Intel will be"?

I didn't conclude, I said "I suspect".

New CPUs are always weak due to weak compilers, P4 was a case in point, it was outperformed by the P3 at the begining but then Intel got into gear, shrunk the die, added enhancements and got a better compiler it started to fly.

The 970 has shown it is has legs despite the fact it's brand new.  When it gets a die shrink, better compiler etc. I think things will be very interesting.
The next generation (980 I assume) based on the POWER5 will hopefully get the same enhancements that chip shall have - POWER5 is expected to perform 4X faster than POWER4.

As for where intel will be - well the next gen P4 is now said to be at 100Watts and Intel are talking about water cooling.  If they can't cool the P4 they'll not be able to scale it.  Indeed, notice how the clock rate increases have slowed recently.

"Power 4" out guns "Pentium 4" in price… Some people didn’t learn from Alpha > Pentium Classic days….

Problem with the Alpha was although they had the best technology DEC didn't know how to sell it.  IBM on the other hand do know how to sell which is why things they are spending millions developing things like POWER5 and POWER6 - BTW they are not optimied for speed, they use larger transistors than usual for extra reliability.

Alpha was a market failure, it's technology was -and still is- the best going, which is why Intel were so keen to get their hands on the Alpha team.

[minator]

BTW Alphas are cool:

http://amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=360

:-D

[minator]

Quote:
As for where intel will be - well the next gen P4 is now said to be at 100Watts and Intel are talking about water cooling.

Notice it’s non-mass market release…

Since when has Intel done anything other than Mass market CPUs?

The 100W refers to Tejas, and the water cooling is for everything from what I read.
Intel have already talked about how they expect mainstream CPUs to hit 140 Watts on EE Times.

Nvidia said the same for graphics chips.

They have to find an engineering solution e.g. .09 micron die strink.

Refer to http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/0812/kaigai011.htm (in Japanese) for the Prescott core @3.4Ghz’s planned release for Q4 2003.  

Which will mean they have managed to up the clock 350MHz in a year, not exactly the stellar scaling we are used to.

What happend to moores law???

Not quite brand new, refer to "Power 4" ISA.

The 970 isn't a POWER4, it's based on it yes but there are differences, not least Altivec. Also there are additional instructions for runing 32 bit OSs.

How could one equal 'R&D' to 'selling'?  Selling/Marketing is quite different to R&D.

Where exactly did I equate R&D to selling?