[Mac_crypto] Apple, IBM Team on 64-Bit Processor for Macintosh

[R. A. Hettinga]

http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3668,a=31461,00.asp


eWEEK

September 23, 2002
Apple, IBM Team on 64-Bit Processor for Macintosh

By Daniel Drew Turner and Matthew Rothenberg

Apple Computer Inc. is looking toward a 64-bit future for the Macintosh,
courtesy of PowerPC partner IBM.

Sources said IBM Microelectronics, a division of IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., is
working with Apple on a 64-bit PowerPC processor for Apple's high-end
desktops and servers. Sources said Apple is testing the CPU, dubbed the
GPUL (GigaProcessor Ultralite), on Mac OS X-based hardware at its
Cupertino, Calif., headquarters and making sure the processor complies with
a new bus architecture on tap for future Macs.

Some GPUL details are expected to be disclosed at the Microprocessor Forum
in San Jose, Calif., in mid-October. IBM will hold a session at the
conference Oct. 15 titled "Breaking Through Compute Intensive
Barriers-IBM's New 64-bit PowerPC Microprocessor."

Peter Glaskowsky, editor in chief of forum sponsor Microprocessor Report,
in Sebastopol, Calif., said that while he doubted GPUL's role in the Mac's
future will be on the public agenda, "we expect this chip to form the basis
of Apple's 64-bit future strategy."

Some observers say GPUL, which shares technology with IBM's server-focused
Power4 chip, will double Mac performance, but they warn that the chip
probably won't reach Apple systems for more than a year at the earliest.

Sources said GPUL will inherit many Power4 performance advantages, such as
being able to perform more instructions per clock cycle than current
PowerPC chips. Early benchmarks show that a 1GHz GPUL processor doubles the
performance of the Motorola Inc. 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor in current Macs,
sources said.

GPUL, which will be backward-compatible with 32-bit operating systems and
applications, will support Vector/Single Instruction Multiple Data
Multimedia Extensions, or VMX, a group of 162 instructions that speed data
processing and algorithmic-intensive tasks, such as multimedia creation and
display.

Apple and IBM are tailoring the chip for a new high-frequency,
point-to-point Mac bus dubbed ApplePI, short for Apple Processor
Interconnect, used to connect PowerPC chips to memory and high-speed I/O
devices, sources said. In addition, IBM plans to offer the processor as the
centerpiece of future Linux-based systems, they said.

Officials at Apple and IBM declined to comment.

-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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