IBM POWER microprocessors
Overview
The IBM POWER microprocessor is a series of high-performance microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM. These microprocessors are based on the RISC architecture and have been used in a variety of IBM products, including the IBM RS/6000, IBM System p, and IBM Power Systems servers, as well as in workstations and supercomputers.
History
The development of the IBM POWER microprocessor began in the early 1980s as part of the IBM 801 project. The 801 was a research project aimed at developing a high-performance, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture. The success of this project led to the development of the POWER (Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC) architecture, which was first introduced in 1990 with the launch of the IBM RS/6000 workstation.
Architecture
The IBM POWER architecture is based on the principles of reduced instruction set computing (RISC). This means that the microprocessor is designed to execute a small number of simple instructions very quickly, rather than a large number of complex instructions. This approach allows for higher performance and more efficient use of processor resources.
Generations
Over the years, IBM has released several generations of the POWER microprocessor, each with significant improvements in performance, efficiency, and features.
POWER1
The first generation, known as POWER1, was introduced in 1990. It was used in the IBM RS/6000 workstation and was notable for its high performance and the introduction of the superscalar execution, which allows for the execution of more than one instruction during a single clock cycle.
POWER2
The second generation, POWER2, was introduced in 1993. It featured a number of enhancements over the POWER1, including improved floating-point performance and the addition of a vector processing unit.
POWER3
The third generation, POWER3, was introduced in 1998. It was used in the IBM System p servers and was notable for its improved 64-bit performance and the introduction of simultaneous multithreading (SMT), which allows for the execution of multiple threads simultaneously.
POWER4
The fourth generation, POWER4, was introduced in 2001. It was used in the IBM Power Systems servers and was notable for its dual-core design, which allows for the execution of two independent threads simultaneously.
POWER5
The fifth generation, POWER5, was introduced in 2004. It featured a number of enhancements over the POWER4, including improved power efficiency and the addition of a hardware-based virtualization technology.
POWER6
The sixth generation, POWER6, was introduced in 2007. It was notable for its high clock speed and the introduction of a decimal floating-point unit.
POWER7
The seventh generation, POWER7, was introduced in 2010. It featured a number of enhancements over the POWER6, including improved power efficiency and the addition of a hardware-based virtualization technology.
POWER8
The eighth generation, POWER8, was introduced in 2013. It was notable for its support for the OpenPOWER ecosystem, which allows for the development of custom hardware and software solutions based on the POWER architecture.
POWER9
The ninth generation, POWER9, was introduced in 2017. It features a number of enhancements over the POWER8, including improved performance, power efficiency, and the addition of hardware-based acceleration for AI and machine learning workloads.
Applications
The IBM POWER microprocessors have been used in a wide range of applications, from workstations and servers to supercomputers. They are particularly well-suited for high-performance computing (HPC) applications, such as scientific simulations, data analysis, and artificial intelligence.
Future
IBM continues to develop the POWER architecture, with the tenth generation, POWER10, expected to be released in 2021. The new generation is expected to feature significant improvements in performance, power efficiency, and features, as well as continued support for the OpenPOWER ecosystem.