IBM Unveils New 64-Bit PowerPC Microprocessor : IBM Official Press Release:

IBM today announced a newly-developed, high-performance PowerPC microprocessor for use in a variety of applications, including desktops, workstations, servers and communications products.

The new chip, called the IBM PowerPC 970, is derived from IBM's award-winning POWER4 server processor to provide high performance and additional function for users. As the first in a new family of high-end PowerPC processors, the chip is designed for initial speeds of up to 1.8 gigahertz, manipulating data in larger, 64-bit chunks and accelerating compute-intensive workloads like multimedia and graphics through specialized circuitry known as a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) unit.

IBM plans to build the chip in its new state-of-the-art 300mm manufacturing facility here using leading-edge manufacturing technologies. IBM plans to pack performance and new features into the chip using ultra-thin 0.13-micron circuitry (nearly 800 times thinner than a human hair), constructed of copper wiring and about 52 million transistors based on IBM's efficient silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. Additional details on the PowerPC 970 are to be disclosed by IBM this week in a paper presented at Microprocessor Forum, a chip design conference organized by industry analyst firm In-Stat/MDR.

"IBM's new PowerPC 970 64-bit chip is all about bringing high-end server processing power to the desktop, low-end server and pervasive space," said Michel Mayer, general manager, IBM Microelectronics Division. "IBM is committed to helping more customers put our expertise in advanced chip design and manufacturing technology to work for them."

The chip incorporates an innovative communications link, or "bus," specially developed to speed information between the processor and memory. Running at a speed of up to 900 megahertz, the bus can deliver information to the processor at up to 6.4 gigabytes per second, to help ensure that the high-performance processor is fed data at sufficient speeds.

While supporting 64-bit computing for emerging applications, the PowerPC 970 also provides native support for traditional 32-bit applications, which can help preserve users' and developers' software investments. The design also supports symmetric multi-processing (SMP), allowing systems to be created that link multiple processors to work in tandem for additional processing power.

IBM Microelectronics is a key contributor to IBM's role as the world's premier information technology supplier. IBM Microelectronics develops, manufactures and markets state-of-the-art semiconductor and interconnect technologies, products and services. Its superior integrated solutions can be found in many of the world's best-known electronic brands. More information about IBM Microelectronics can be found at: www.ibm.com/chips.

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Contact: Scott Sykes
Company: IBM Microelectronics
Title: Media Relations
Voice: 845-892-5023
Email: sykessc@us.ibm.com

I attended a conference 10 days ago with IBM and this is nothing compared to the rest of the stuff they are building - that actually works today - like grid computing, autonomic computing and other stuff. Imagine all the resources of your distributed infrastructure - processors, disks, ram etc all acting as one globally. It studies itself for errors, types of transactions, patterns etc and makes plans to improve itself and keep itself running.... in an even more optimized way. Existing installed examples have shown that the self configuring and self optimizing aspects work better than skilled administrators and architects can do. Its not difficult at all to programm to monitor for certain transaction types and deny credit for anyone appearing on a certain list.

Pretty soon we will be able to build a global infrastructure that is scalable reliable resilient and capable of handling any volume of transactions, fully mirrored and we will finally be able to implement the ultimate service for the world to provide complete safety:

"And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the... authentication, verification and approval from the appropriate global authority.

Read more about other potential future press releases in revelation chapter 13...

IBM, Oxford to build mammogram computer grid

MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2002 12:00 AM
- Reuters U.S. Company News

By Duncan Martell

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) is teaming up with Oxford University and the British government to build a sophisticated computer grid designed for earlier screening and diagnosis of breast cancer.

Dubbed eDiamond, the computer grid will let hospitals and physicians store and share mammograms in standardized digital form.

A computer grid is a cluster of servers and computers linked through the Internet.

The software, developed by Britain's Mirada Solutions, will help radiologists accurately compare and evaluate mammography scans stored on eDiamond -- no matter where or when they were created, IBM said.

"We're applying the vast computing power of a grid to create a massive digital 'photo album' of mammogram scans available to medical experts across the UK," said Nicholas Donofrio, senior vice president, technology and manufacturing for IBM, the world's largest computer company.

The eDiamond project -- announced during October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month -- is significant because of controversy during the past year over the accuracy of mammograms in detecting breast cancer and saving lives. The films can be hard to read.

Women in the United States are advised to have annual mammograms beginning at age 40. In Britain and other countries, women begin undergoing screening exams later and do not have mammograms as often.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer, excluding skin cancer, among women in the United States, the American Cancer Society said. An estimated 203,500 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in American women this year and about 39,600 women will die of the disease, according to the ACS.

In the United Kingdom and the United States, early detection and better treatment during the 1990s prevented about 20,000 breast cancer deaths in the U.K. and about 40,000 U.S. deaths, according to a study published in May 2000 in the British medical journal Lancet.

FIRST 'OFF-THE-SHELF' GRID

IBM, based in Armonk, New York, said the eDiamond grid will be the first one built entirely with off-the-shelf, commercially available technology. Many computing grids so far have been created using proprietary, customized software and technology.

The notion of a computer grid to improve medical treatment, as well as for other research, has been gaining steam, particularly in academic communities. The idea is to link computers, from dozens of servers to potentially millions, to make computing power available on demand, rather like water or electricity.

The project represents an investment of about $6 million by IBM and the British government.

IBM will contribute servers, storage systems, workstations and other computing hardware.

Oxford plans to integrate middleware -- a type of software that ties together different software applications on networks -- and other software programs from IBM.

In addition to letting hospitals store and share mammograms in digital form, IBM said the eDiamond grid will give physicians advanced analytical tools and capabilities to improve the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Mammogram images will be data mined, allowing physicians to develop new forms of treatment by conducting in-depth studies to determine the impact of environment and lifestyle on the development of breast cancer, IBM said.

IBM expects the grid to help reduce the rate of false-positive diagnosis, as well as overcome the challenge of inconsistent image formats and lost films that prevent proper diagnosis.

eDiamond also will allow physicians to study and compare similar cases so they can develop better treatment options.

Initially, IBM said the grid will link a large database of mammograms shared by St. Georges Hospital and Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust Hospitals in London, the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and the Breast Screening Centers in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland.

The project could eventually be expanded to all 92 screening centers throughout Britain, creating that country's first national digital mammography archive, IBM said.

EE Times Article is HERE.

SAN MATEO, Calif. — IBM Corp. may give a peek into Apple Computer Inc.'s 64-bit future when it details a new version of its Power4 microprocessor next week. Aimed for use in desktops and low-end servers, the 64-bit Power4 could be IBM's first PowerPC-compatible chip to support the Altivec multimedia instruction extensions defined by Apple and Motorola Inc.

The IBM device is one of about 18 new processors that will be described at the Microprocessor Forum 2002, to be held Oct. 14-17. "I expect there will be a fair amount of discussion about this part," said Peter Glaskowsky, editor-in-chief of The Microprocessor Report, which hosts the annual gathering.

Unlike IBM's original Power4, the device to be described next week will use one, not two, internal processor core and will support extensions that make the Power4 compatible with the PowerPC architecture. "Because it supports a full 32-bit environment, this chip should be able to boot the Mac OS just fine," Glaskowsky said. An IBM spokesman would not say if Apple plans to use the chip to move its desktops to a full 64-bit operating system.

"Apple would have to be crazy not to use this part," said Glaskowsky. "Its performance will be in the upper reaches of any CPU. I can't comment on its speeds, but they are good numbers. Apple would be able to produce for the first time machines that not only have great performance but support full 64-bit addressing."

The chips could be used in Apple's new line of Xserve servers even in a 32-bit mode. However, Apple would have to heavily rework its Mac OS, which has just gone through a major release cycle, to support 64-bit addressing. Therefore the company, which keeps a tight lid on unannounced products, might not be ready to detail its plans for the chip until the end of 2003.

"Apple has a whole lot of work to do to fully make use of this part," said Glaskowsky of the chip, which sports an eight-stage superscalar pipeline and supports symmetric multiprocessing.

Likely reference

The new Power4 also includes "a vector processing unit implementing over 160 specialized vector instructions," according to the conference program. That's likely a reference to the Altivec instruction set defined by Motorola and Apple to boost multimedia performance by providing special vector processing capabilities in the PowerPC instruction set.

IBM had focused for some time on building fast PowerPC parts for Apple, rather than adopting the relatively complex Altivec extensions. The new Power4 seems to mark a change in course.

Among other news at MPF next week, startup MemoryLogix will announce a Pentium II-class synthesizeable X86-compatible core for embedded applications. The part's die size and cost will be comparable to current 486 parts, Glaskowsky said. It will be capable of running at several hundred MHz, and users will be able to customize the chip's cache size and elect whether or not it uses a floating-point processor, he added.

Applied Micro Circuits Corp., Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. will discuss separate 10-Gbit/second network processing units at the conference. The parts are all enhancements to existing 10-Gbit/s NPUs. Intel's offering sports "one feature I think a lot of people will find surprising," Glaskowsky said.

The Cisco T3 is the company's third-generation Toaster network processor designed for internal use on Cisco systems. "Seeing what Cisco has done and how fairly straightforward their device is should be interesting — especially since it means this company will not be a customer for some other vendors," Glaskowsky said.

Among embedded processors, Tensilica Inc. will discuss a new VLIW platform that will become a base architecture for the company. And Motorola will detail version 5 of its ColdFire embedded 32-bit processor.

For its part, ARM Ltd. will discuss the first two ARM 11 processors. The "400-MHz+ cores feature an 8-stage pipeline, a new memory system, a vector floating-point unit, and a quad 64-bit Amba AHB-lite bus interface," according to the conference agenda.

"These processors sort of stretch how much performance you might want to have in a cellphone, but they should find good use in PDAs," Glaskowsky said.

Separately, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will discuss its plans for a 1.2-GHz version of an ARM 10 processor built in a 130-nanometer (0.13-micron) process.

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