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IBM zEnterprise System Mainframe: World's Fastest Microprocessors - IBM technician Asia Dent, Poughkeepsie, tests the world's fastest microprocessor, made in New York and shipping to clients on Sept. 10. The heart of IBM's new zEnterprise System mainframes, the new chip helps deliver world-record speed (5.2 GHz) as the world's transactions and data continue to grow. The new technology is the result of an investment of more than $1.5 billion in IBM research and development.
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IBM
today announced details of the world's fastest computer chip -- the
microprocessor in a new version of the IBM mainframe that begins
shipping to customers on Sept. 10.
According
to IBM, this world record-breaking speed is necessary for businesses
managing huge workloads, such as banks and retailers, especially as the
world becomes increasingly more inter-connected, data has grown beyond
the world's storage capacity, and business transactions continue to
skyrocket.
For
example, according to a study by Berg Insight, the number of active
users of mobile banking and related financial services worldwide is
forecasted to increase from 55 million in 2009 to 894 million in 2015.
Such
trends are driving the need for innovation in systems that can help
clients take advantage of them to provide new services and develop new
business models. In response, IBM continues to invest in systems
innovation -- delivering workload-optimized systems with innovation in
microprocessors, software and hardware.
The
new zEnterprise technology is the result of an investment of more than
$1.5 billion in IBM research and development in the zEnterprise line, as
well as more than three years of collaboration with some of IBM's top
clients around the world.
z196 Processor
The
z196 processor is a four-core chip that contains 1.4 billion
transistors on a 512-square millimeter (mm) surface. The chip was
designed by IBM engineers in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and was manufactured
using IBM's 45 nanometer (nm) SOI processor technology in the company's
300mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. There were also major contributions to
the z196 processor development from IBM labs in Austin, TX, Germany,
Israel and India.
The
mainframe processor makes use of IBM's patented embedded DRAM (eDRAM)
technology, which allows IBM to place dense DRAM caches, or components,
on the same chips as high-speed microprocessors, resulting in improved
performance.
The New zEnterprise 196
From
a performance standpoint, the zEnterprise System is the most powerful
commercial IBM system ever. The core server in the zEnterprise System --
called zEnterprise 196 -- contains 96 of the world's fastest, most
powerful microprocessors, capable of executing more than 50 billion
instructions per second. That's roughly 17,000 times more instructions
than the Model 91, the high-end of IBM's popular System/360 family,
could execute in 1970.
This
new IBM microprocessor technology has new software to optimize
performance of data-heavy workloads, including up to a 60% improvement
in data intensive(1) and Java workloads(2) Increased levels of system
performance, in turn, increases software performance, which can reduce
software license costs.
The new system offers 60% more capacity than its predecessor, the System z10, and uses about the same amount of electricity.
Energy
efficiencies were achieved through advances in microprocessor design,
45nm silicon technology, more efficient power conversion and
distribution, as well as advanced sensors and cooling control firmware
that monitors and makes adjustments based on environmental factors such
as temperature and humidity levels and even air density.
The
combination of zEnterprise chip speed, memory, system reliability,
availability, security and storage architecture provide an optimal
environment for managing the world's most demanding workloads.
Footnotes:
(1)-Up
to 60% increase in total system capacity for Data managed with DB2 and
IMS. As measured by IBM Large System Performance Reference (LSPR)
workloads using z/OS® 1.11
(2)-Up
to a 66% improvement in Java performance with Linux on System z. The
improvement on z196 compared to z10 was measured using a single Java
application that focus on a variety of Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
application functions typically used in both client and servers.
Original article
