Mailing Lists: Apple Mailing Lists
 Image of Mac OS face in stamp
IBM Power4
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

IBM Power4

Folks,

I attended a briefing today on IBM's high performance computing technology,
which is hinged on their Power4 CPU (this CPU has awesome performance in the
various real-world benchmarks I have seen). After the briefing, I asked the
presenter (a chief engineering manager from IBM) about the Power4 derivative
for desktops and low end servers to be announced in October. You may recall
that there has been speculation that this CPU would find its way into
PowerMacs in the future. Well, it sounds like this CPU is not in Apple's
future -- the "over 160" vector instructions are not AltiVec (even though
AltiVec has 162 instructions), and there are technical issues that would
prevent AltiVec from ever marrying with Power4 or its successors.
Furthermore, the guy came right out and said that they have pitched the
desktop Power4 to Apple, but Apple was not interested.

So, although Power4-based PowerMacs seemed like a promising (and likely)
possibility, it looks like it won't happen. I guess we will have to wait
and see what Apple has in store for the future . . . .

Craig

--
Dr. Craig Hunter
NASA Langley Research Center
AAAC/Configuration Aerodynamics Branch
email@hidden
(757) 864-3020
(G4 Cube - OS X)
_______________________________________________
fortran-dev mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives: http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/fortran-dev
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.


Visit the Apple Store online or at retail locations.
1-800-MY-APPLE

Contact Apple | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2011 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.