Conference ricks::dechips

648.0. "PPc: Arthur, Helmwind, Mach 5..." by ROM01::OLD_CIPOLLA (Bruno Cipolla) Mon Feb 10 1997 08:23

    +      THE POWERPC ALLIANCE PREPARES ITS SPRING COLLECTION
    
    IBM Corp is beginning to attract criticism over the way PowerPC
    has fallen behind all the other major RISC families, Sparc, R-
    series, Precision Architecture and Alpha, in particular for the
    fact that an off-the-shelf 64-bit part is still a pipe dream -
    but all that is about to change if MacWeek Online is to be
    believed. Trouble is, there is still no sign of a 64-bit part,
    and although the roster is to include the first entry in the
    next-generation G3 series, they appear to offer little in the
    way of serious advances, and to be little more than a tardy
    effort on the part of the PowerPC partners to play catch-up.
    This first G3 part, code-named Arthur, is expected in late
    spring, and should be clocked at about 300MHz. The core
    architecture is expected to resemble the PowerPC 603e - that is
    of course the cleaned-up version of the original 601, but the
    addition of an on-board Level 2 cache controller and dedicated
    interface should take performance closer to the PowerPC 604e in
    some applications. Cache will initially be external, but a
    version with built-in cache is expected to ship in the autumn,
    but the part is not expected to provide any support for
    symmetric multiprocessing. In the 604e camp, Helmwind is a 604e
    with multiprocessing support, to be fabricated in a new process
    developed by IBM in Burlington, Vermont. The first ones are
    expected to be clocked at 200MHz to 250MHz, with 300MHz on the
    horizon. In the Mac world, Power Computing Corp and Umax
    Computer Corp are tipped to put it into their high-end systems.
    A 604e code-named Mach 5 is planned by IBM and Motorola Inc for
    mid-year, MacWeek hears, but it will still be based on the
    current architecture, and simply be smaller and use less power
    - which means it should start out at 300MHz and move beyond
    400MHz in 1998. The processor's Level 2 caches are said to
    offer better floating-point performance than older versions.
    Working alone, Motorola is said to have a 300MHz 603e called
    Golden Eye for launch before mid-year.

    
    +      POWERPC ALLIANCE PREVIEWS G3 PARTS, IBM HAS 403GCX
    
    The PowerPC Alliance has been previewing its first G3 family
    chips and claims that the first part chip is slightly faster
    and is cheaper to manufacture than Intel Corp's planned Pentium
    II chip. Code-named Arthur for the king, the part is expected
    this summer. The second part, code-named Mach 5, will also be
    out in the second half. Arthur is tipped to be 90% faster than
    the current PowerPC 603e, and to start with a 250MHz clock.
    Meantime IBM Corp has a new embedded part, the PowerPC 403GCX,
    which is to go into the Network Stations built for the company
    by Network Computing Devices Inc. IBM also cut prices about 20%
    on the earlier PowerPC 400 parts, the 403GA, 403GB, 403GC and
    401GF. The 403GCX includes on-chip data and memory management,
    and comes in 50MHz and 66MHz speeds. The 50MHz version of the
    part is $37 for 10,000-up, the 66MHz will be $44.50 when you
    order 10,000-up.