IBM will start selling what it claims to be the world’s fastest computer chip on 10 September.
The z196 processor is a four-core chip that contains 1.4 billion transistors on a 512mm-square surface and runs at 5.2GHz, which, according to IBM, will be needed to meet the demand from increased web-based banking and retail technology.
The mainframe processor also packs in 24MB of Level 3 Cache memory, making use of IBM’s embedded DRAM (eDRAM) technology. The company says eDRAM allows it to place dense DRAM caches, or components, on the same chips as high-speed microprocessors to improve performance.
The chip is designed to sit in IBM’s latest mainframe monster, zEnterprise System, which is in itself an impressive piece of kit.
The core server in the zEnterprise System – the zEnterprise 196 – contains 96 of the new microprocessors, and is capable of executing more than 50 billion instructions per second.
To put that in perspective, IBM said the zEnterprise 196 runs 17,000 times more instructions than the Model 91, the high-end of IBM’s popular System/360 family, could execute in 1970.
More importantly, the company said the microprocessor technology included new software to optimise performance of data-heavy workloads.
IBM said the result was 60% improvement in performance in intensive database tasks and a 66% boost for Java workloads.
Anyone wanting to get their hands on this technology will need deep pockets, however, with the zEnterprise System expected to start at $1 million when it goes on sale next week.
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