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View Full Version : IBM confirms Altivecked POWER4-lite

norm
10-16-2002, 03:38 AM
Source: The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/)

IBM's Peter Sandon disclosed technical details for IBM's PowerPC 970 processor in San Jose this morning and confirmed that the processor supports the AltiVec instruction set. In addition to providing a competitive workstation and edge server chip for IBM - which deploys POWER3 in these space and power sensitive designs, the processor is tailor made for high end Apple machines. It's expected to sample in the first half of next year, and appear in production volumes in the second half.

Click here for more (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/27621.html).
whabang
10-16-2002, 04:25 AM
Aw yeah!
Bobsonsirjonny
10-16-2002, 05:38 AM
This could just make X86 or PPC irrelevant :-) So we can get on and not worry about whats under the bonnet :-D
DaveP
10-16-2002, 05:49 AM
We already can consider what is under the bonnet
irrelevant.
Bobsonsirjonny
10-16-2002, 06:29 AM
True - but it might put a quash to the X86 v PPC arguments, if both processors perform to a similar spec.
Alkemyst
10-16-2002, 06:43 AM
even tho its made with the mac in mind, i hope they dont have excusive rights like they did before with mota

eyetech,mai,Amiga.inc,better try & leverage some :)
Hammer
10-16-2002, 04:22 PM
Other issues may arise may involve;
1. PPC's 32 general registers VS AMD's X86-64’s 16 general registers issues.
2. Pricing/power (i.e. bang for bucks) comparisons.
3. Running legacy software.
4. Availability.
5. ...

Binary abstractions techniques (e.g. virtual 68k processors, MS's dotNET, Tao's VP) may reduce CPU HW dependencies.
AmigaMac
10-16-2002, 06:19 PM
even tho its made with the mac in mind, i hope they dont have excusive rights like they did before with mota

Don't worry, it's not pointed at the Mac only... IBM also wants to leverage a market with PPC and Linux for this chip, so opportunities will be there. It is up to Amiga Inc. to get the ball rollin!!!
DethKnight
10-16-2002, 11:53 PM
Anyone dabble in 64 bit programming?
I'm curious just how much more different/difficult it is to 32 bit.
Treke
10-17-2002, 03:21 AM
64 bit programming:

If you want to just run your programs, recompile, the compiller maybe ;) can do a good optimization

re

Treke