IBM PPC970 64bit CPU at CeBIT

@Hattig

good to hear... lets hope its performance is 'decent' at least.

[olegil]

Tickly wrote:

olegil wrote:
However, prediction is never accurate, even more so when it comes to predicting the future

How exactly do you predict the present or the past?!

You've never tried:
1: archeology
2: history

?

Remember that "to the victor belong the spoils", hence what you see in history books about the past is what someone write in the book, not necessarily what happened. But predicting the future is harder still :-)

[ksk]

mips_proc wrote:
well what I do for a living is 3D relavent to the print industry/web industry now... so I'd use it for that...

Ok.

I hope Hyperion manages to get Realsoft3D ready soon after AOS4.0 release... and Realsoft3D comes with renderfarm support.  :-)

nahh I'll be getting a mac if anything for real world ... realsoft3D dosent float my boat ;P

[xeron]

How exactly do you predict the present or the past?!

You've never tried:
1: archeology
2: history

You've never tried a dictionary?  :-P

[color=006600]pre·dict[/color]

To state, tell about, or make known in advance, especially on the basis of special knowledge.

v. intr.
To foretell something; prophesy.

[color=006600]Synonyms:[/color] predict, call, forecast, foretell, prognosticate

These verbs mean to tell about something in advance of its occurrence by means of special knowledge or inference: predict an eclipse; couldn't call the outcome of the game; forecasting the weather; foretold events that would happen; prognosticating a rebellion.

[Crumb]

@kronos

A "boxed" design would be needed or some obscure page-swapping
like it had been done in MS-DOS .....

I've read that the 970 is compatible with 32bit apps and that it clears the unused extra 32 bits.

[Kronos]

@crumb
Which won't be a prob solong you have "only" 4GB of RAM.

But imagine this:
A 32bit-app running in the lower 4GB.
A 64bit-app with data at 0x0000000100000000.

Those 2 want to communicate with each other ....

Mixing different address-sizes is not a good idea, and the
older version of Windows are a perfect proove for it.

[iamaboringperson]

mips_proc wrote:
PPC970 looks interesting now that the top speed will be 2.5ghz and not 1.8... at 2.5ghz it might hold the speed crown for a time.

:-o

[downix]

Weren't CBM thinking of making next gen Amiga's using PA-RISC processors?

Yes and no.  CBM was using the PA-RISC CPU core in their Hombre chipset.  However, there is a scenario where CBM could have wound up producing whole CPU's.  HP was looking for a company to jointly develop a lower-end version of it's PA's for the consumer/embedded range at this time, and CBM was an ideal matchup.  Making CBM an even better canidate over the competition (Intel winning out in the end) was the fact that they were already designing a consumer-oriented version of the PA-RISC Core for the Hombre chipset.(which, frankly, would have rocked and even today would not have been too out-of-place in a budget desktop, as you'll find with Voodoo's and i810 chips today)  CBM, if the Hombre design did take off, might have expand the partnership to include whole CPU's.  Would have been tres cool.

Woulda coulda shoulda, doesn't matter now.  I'd still love to see the Hombre's files tho, just to see what could have been.

But, that's just my personal opinion based on outside observation.

[strobe]

Keep in mind PowerPC has been 64bit since day 1. Intel and AMD are still out of their league. All I hear about Itanium and Hammer are delays, lackluster performance, delays, and more delays.

The Mac rumor sites have reported that 2.5Ghz PPC 970 was working using the 130nm process, but the chip consumed as much power as a 3Ghz P4. Of course the PPC 970 does more per cycle...yum! Question is can one supply power to these chips in dual or quad configuration  :-o

Only a rumour I hope. What is the point of new CPUs using up more
energy - I'd rather keep the old one for desktop use.

Quote:

    Weren't CBM thinking of making next gen Amiga's using PA-RISC processors?



Yes and no. CBM was using the PA-RISC CPU core in their Hombre chipset. However, there is a scenario where CBM could have wound up producing whole CPU's. HP was looking for a company to jointly develop a lower-end version of it's PA's for the consumer/embedded range at this time, and CBM was an ideal matchup. Making CBM an even better canidate over the competition (Intel winning out in the end) was the fact that they were already designing a consumer-oriented version of the PA-RISC Core for the Hombre chipset.(which, frankly, would have rocked and even today would not have been too out-of-place in a budget desktop, as you'll find with Voodoo's and i810 chips today) CBM, if the Hombre design did take off, might have expand the partnership to include whole CPU's. Would have been tres cool.

Woulda coulda shoulda, doesn't matter now. I'd still love to see the Hombre's files tho, just to see what could have been.

But, that's just my personal opinion based on outside observation.

Sounds interesting, what was the Hombre chipset then? AAA? Anyyone know of any links with info?

[downix]

Sounds interesting, what was the Hombre chipset then? AAA? Anyyone know of any links with info?

it was not AAA, it was post-AAA.  They began Hombre when it was obvious that AAA had fallen too far behind.  (actually, the origins of Hombre began with an object study to see about putting AAA and a 68k processor into a single chip for a laptop, but things evolved far since that original concept)  it did not have much in the way of legacy support for OCS/ECS/AGA.  there's a good review of it at http://amiga.emugaming.com/hombre.html.

There are a few mistakes in that review, however, as some legacy compatability did exist.  Most notably the fact that Hombre still used the AAA's audio/peripheral chip, Mary.  In addition, it still supported playfields and had added blitter modes to make a dedicated sprite engine redundant.  it did keep one sprite tho, Sprite0, which was now slaved as a mouse pointer.  

Hombre on a PCI card would have also netted Commodore sales outside of the Amiga platform, as Hombre would have compared well with the top-end chipsets from other vendors and came in at a much lower cost *and* provided features such as texture mapping and dynamic lighting that the other vendors did not add till '97 (when Hombre was slated for production in '95).  

but, it's all just a dead past now.  A shame, really.

Maybe CBM should've sold out to 3dfx or NVidia, things could've been extremley different

[toRus]

Define ?success?. It?s not the first time that the PPC has the same clock speed as with X86 CPUs (refer to 1995 era). I?m just too old for such optimistic appraisals.

Well, if you listen to IBM you would wonder if this is the same "x86" Big Blue 20 years ago. IBM has restructured heavily though it is still considered one of the top copmanies in BOTH hardware and software.

And IBM is pushing PPC rather strongly nowdays. They 've said that noone will speak about Itanium in a few years. And, believe it, if there is any company with the power to do it IBM would be a strong canditate. Plus, don't forget the new chip they are developing with Toshiba and Sony for PS3. That means strong sales for their semiconductor division.

PowerPC is a very good technology - much superior than anything AMD or Intel have in ming. It can scale up to servers or down to PDAs. The future is bright.

[Hammer]

Well, if you listen to IBM you would wonder if this is the same "x86" Big Blue 20 years ago.

I well aware of IBM’s products and their ever trying to re-control of Personal Computer market i.e.
1. PS/2's MCA is an attempt to re-control X86 market. Results: Failed. VL-BUS and PCI eventually killed it.
2. OS/2 Warp, one of the first pure 32bit Desktop OS for X86. Results: Still lost to 16/32bit kit-bashed Windows 95 and market power of Microsoft.
3. PowerPC initiative (during PPC 601 era), IBM has finally concluded that it has totally lost control of X86 market and decided to create itself a new PC market i.e. "PowerPC" (based on it’s POWER series lines).
4. IBM's support for Linux bandwagon i.e. aimed against some certain OS ex-partner.

I did purchased (for business purposes) IBM hardware (and OS products) since IBM PS/2 Model
55/56 era (late 80s) until the recent NetVista range.

IBM PS/2 Model 56 era was bundled with OS/2 (still have my pristine IBM PS/2 Model 56 user manual).

The purchasing of the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 3000 is just a personal hobby of mine.

Well, if you listen to IBM

The “you listen to IBM” is irrelevant in this case. I don’t have any feelings towards any optimistic appraisal based on "what we’re going to do speech".

you would wonder if this is the same "x86" Big Blue 20 years ago.

IBM has been involved with non-X86 CPUs way back in 1990s (e.g. RISC System/6000 family of workstations and servers).

And IBM is pushing PPC rather strongly nowdays.

The “PowerPC” (short for “Power Personal Computer”) was targeted for “personal computing” ever since PowerPC 601.

I still remember PPC 601 vs Pentium Class cubed texture map demonstration test. PPC 601 was shown to be faster compared to the similar clocked Pentium Classic.  

"IBM is pushing PPC rather strongly nowdays" would be closer to IBM's attempt to re-energizing PowerPC range.

Personally, I’ll go for “wait an see”, but past deeds plays a large part in terms market acceptance (e.g. desktop PC space).  

IBM has restructured heavily though it is still considered one of the top copmanies in BOTH hardware and software.

So? Any company can “restructure” btw…

still considered one of the top copmanies in BOTH hardware and software.

So? Please note that IBM has to compete with similar level competitors.

 They 've said that noone will speak about Itanium in a few years.

Until Intel has exhausted it’s X86 revenues base,
Intel will pump massive $$$ into it’s IA-64 project.  

Intel is too well cashed up for this type of battle.

And, believe it,

I'm too old for such things. I’m an atheist in such things..

if there is any company with the power to do it IBM would be a strong canditate.

What power? The power like the OS/2 Warp scenario?

Plus, don't forget the new chip they are developing with Toshiba and Sony for PS3.

So? Should one start a list who supports X86 market?  

That means strong sales for their semiconductor division.

Good for the group.

PowerPC is a very good technology - much superior than anything AMD or Intel have in ming.

???ming???

Careful with these types of statements i.e. your statement is open to counter attacks.  

Did you forget X86 market is consist of multiple companies?

It can scale up to servers or down to PDAs. The future is bright.

Oh boy...