Power2 Chip Nearly Doubles Performance of IBM RS/6000 Line

NEWS BRIEFS

  New York, N.Y. -- IBM Tuesday introduced what it called "the highest-
performance microprocessor in the computing industry," Power2, as well as
three new RISC System/6000 models that incorporate this new implementation of
IBM's Power Architecture.
  With today's announcements, IBM said its customers now have access to the
most powerful uniprocessor-based systems available in the industry.
  IBM said its Power2 (Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC 2) chip is
"a revolutionary microprocessor" that allows IBM's new Power2-based systems
to nearly double both integer and floating-point performance over IBM's
existing Power-based RISC System/6000 models.
  Power2-based systems will run, with no modification, the more than 6,500
existing software applications available for AIX/6000, IBM's operating system
for the RS/6000 family.
  The new Power2-based RISC System/6000 models announced Tuesday are:
  * Powerserver 990 -- a rack-mounted, high-end server "with computing power
and performance comparable to today's supercomputers -- at one-tenth of a
supercomputer's cost," according to IBM.
  * Powerstation/Powerserver 590 -- the highest-performing RISC System/6000
deskside system ever.
  * Powerstation/Powerserver 58H -- a midrange deskside system configured
similarly to the 590 that is intended as a commercial server or a high-
performance 3-D workstation.
  IBM noted that the Powerserver 990 and Powerstation/Powerserver 590 are
classified as having supercomputer performance not only by IBM -- but by the
United States Department of Commerce, which requires that these new systems
carry a special export license reserved for supercomputers.
  "Power2 is a breakthrough technology in the industry, and no competitor's
systems can match us in either price or performance categories for comparable
products," said Phil Hester, vice president of systems and technology for IBM
Advanced Workstations and Systems. "The three new Power2-based systems
announced today will usher in a new era of computing capability, giving our
customers the ability to do things they could previously only dream about."
  The Powerserver 990 comes with a 71.5-MHz Power2 microprocessor, the
highest-performing uniprocessor in the computer industry. It delivers a
SPECint92 rating of 126 and a SPECfp92 rating of 260.4, well above the level
of its nearest competitor, according to IBM.
  "These outstanding integer and floating-point specifications make the
Powerserver 990 a natural choice for technical customers in fields such as
analytical simulation, where the ability to handle large numerically
intensive computing problems is critical to their success," IBM said in a
release.
  The system has 256 KB of data cache and a 32 KB of instruction cache, and
comes standard with 128 MB of memory, expandable to 2 GB with the new 256-MB
memory card; 4 GB of disk expandable to 840 GB with the IBM RAIDiant Array;
integrated SCSI; a SCSI-2 controller adapter; two 80-MB/sec Micro Channel
buses providing 16 standard slots (one slot occupied by the SCSI controller);
5 GB 8mm tape, CD-ROM drive and battery backup.
  The performance of the Powerserver 990 can be boosted further with IBM's
High Availability Cluster Multi-Processing/6000 software, which allows
customers to cluster up to four Powerserver 990 models in a high-availability
configuration.
  The Powerstation/Powerserver 590 and 58H, with 66-MHz and 55-MHz Power2
microprocessors, respectively, create a new high-end and mid-range deskside
category in the RISC System/6000 product line.
  These systems have a 256-KB data cache and a 32-KB instruction cache, and
come standard with 64 MB of memory, expandable to 2 GB; 2 GB of disk,
expandable to 460 GB with IBM's RAIDiant Array; integrated SCSI; a SCSI-2
controller adapter, eight 8-MB/second Micro Channel slots (one slot occupied
by the SCSI-2 controller) and a CD-ROM drive.
  "They offer outstanding integer, floating-point and transaction processing
at competitive price points," IBM said. "Customers in banking, manufacturing
and other industries who are looking for a minicomputer replacement or a
distributed database server for general business and commercial applications
will find power to spare in both the Powerstation/Powerserver 590 and 58H.
  "Engineers and scientists working on applications that require maximum
floating-point performance, such as seismic modeling, engineering analysis,
computational chemistry or 3-D simulation, will find these systems to be
spectacular performers."
  The Power2 chip -- capable of a half-billion operations per second -- uses
a design that incorporates twice the number of fixed and floating-point
execution units available for the first-generation Power chip, allowing for
up to eight operations and six instructions per cycle.
  IBM said this configuration far outdistances the 2 operations and 2
instructions of the Power2's closest performance rival, DEC's Alpha chip.
  The processor complex itself consists of eight chips mounted on a multi-
chip module. Those chips include: one instruction cache, one fixed-point
(containing two fixed-point units), one floating-point (containing two
floating-point units), four data cache units, and one storage control unit.
  IBM said the advanced technology employed in the new multi-chip module
provides the required levels of performance and bandwidth to sustain the
multi-execution levels of the Power2, thus eliminating bottlenecks within the
processor and allowing much greater performance.
  All existing RS/6000 9XX series customers have the ability to upgrade to
the new Powerserver 990, while customers with an existing
Powerstation/Powerserver 570 can move up to either the model 58H or model
590. High-end deskside customers that currently have an installed
Powerstation/Powerserver 580 can also upgrade their systems to the new
Powerstation/Powerserver 590.
  Pricing and availability:



  PRODUCT                            PRICE          AVAILABILITY
  Powerstation/Powerserver 58H       $ 64,450       10/22/93
  Powerstation/Powerserver 590       $ 74,450       10/22/93
  Powerserver 990                    $127,100       10/29/93