14 DAY TRIAL // IBM is determined to go aggressive on the microprocessor market and it prepares a strong weapon for the action, a 45nm octo-core giant, called Power7. This little monster looks like a highly capable device, offering up to 256 GigaFlops of performance; it is rumored to be delivered on the market featuring a clock speed of about 4.0GHz and four threads per core. The launch date is said to be in 2010.
It seems that Big Blue intends to have the Power7 for sale in a dual-chip module, gaining a total performance of 512 GigaFlops per chip. The company's plans also include a 2U system capable of supporting four dual-chip modules. Translated into performance, that would bring us more than 2 TeraFlops. But IBM will not stop here, and rumors say that the company intends to make available 64 Power7 CPUs configurations as well.
It seems that IBM's forth-coming Power7 microprocessor will also be socket compatible with future Opteron processors. That would be on the line with a previously announced anti-Intel campaign. The Inquirer calls IBM's tactic FUD, meaning: fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Some suggestions have been made that IBM wants to stamp out Intel's Itanium, and that it is working in this direction. This move might bring collateral damage to Hewlett Packard as well. Although IBM says that HP lost its people working on the Itanium development to Intel, and that the company will tell the chip maker to withdraw, there is no solid argument that Big Blue can bring to the case.
On the other hand, a close connection between Power7 and Opteron would make sense. AMD and IBM have a close relationship that might end up with such Opteron-Power7 compatibility. Even so, The Inquirer says that AMD should sleep on it well enough, as IBM Microelectronics is known to have had similar partnerships with other chip firms.