The
new processors will ship in a new version of the IBM
mainframe-–the zEnterprise System--that begins shipping to customers on
Sept. 10. IBM distinguished engineer, Jim
Porell, told eWEEK the chip in IBM's new
zEnterprise System clocks in at record-breaking 5.2 GHz speed to handle the
growing number of business transactions as global connectivity and data
proliferate.
Indeed,
in a press release about the new chip, IBM
said the 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.
The
z196 processor is a four-core chip that contains 1.4 billion transistors on a
512-square millimeter (mm) surface, Porell said. 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, Texas, Germany,
Israel and India,
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.
“We
spent $1.5 billion in building this chip and the effort involved 5,000 people
across six countries and 22 labs,” Porell told eWEEK.
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.
Meanwhile,
from a performance standpoint, the zEnterprise
System is the most powerful commercial IBM
system ever, the company claimed in its press release. 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 is roughly 17,000 times more instructions
than the Model 91, the high-end of IBM's
popular System/360 family, could execute in 1970.
“We
had to do a lot of work on the hardware side, but we have middleware that has
to exploit that hardware to handle new workloads, and we’ve seen increases of
40 percent and above in terms of efficiency and productivity,” Porell said.
The new IBM microprocessor technology has
new software to optimize performance of data-heavy workloads, including up to a
60 percent improvement in data intensive and Java workloads. Increased
levels of system performance, in turn, increases software performance, which
can reduce software license costs. The new system offers 60 percent 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.
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.
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