Nove POWERPC

[Valek Petr <petr.valek@vsp.cz>]

	Good news ahead for PowerPC. This is from macosrumors.com (hope you
don't 
	mind my quoting the whole thing):

	Thursday, November 12th, 1:02 PM EST 

	The future of the PowerPC: Max and V'Ger 

	Information recently acquired by Rumors has shed new light on the 
	migration path to AIM's next generation of PowerPC processors -- and
the 
	outlook is extremely promising. Over the next few weeks, we'll
explore 
	that information in depth. Today, we look at the two steps that will
move 
	Mac users into the G4 space, toward 1 Gigahertz:

	Max -- 300 to 500MHz

	The first stage of the Motorola G4 revolution is code-named "Max."
This 
	PowerPC processor will sport many improvements over the G3s, and
push 
	adoption of these technologies onto the many PowerPC-supported
platforms, 
	paving the way for the truly remarkable processors to follow. Among
Max's 
	features:

	New copper wiring process, reaching 0.18 microns of wire width, vs. 
	.29-.25 for current processors.
	 
	Reduced power usage, cooler operation, possible wider tolerance for 
	overclocking 

	Support for older, tradition "60x" busses at 64 bits, and faster
"MaxBus" 
	technology, which sports 128 bit width and advanced capabilities
allowing 
	Max and V'Ger processors to talk directly to each other at full
speed.
	 
	AltiVec instructions support, accelerating IP Telephony, software IP

	routing, 3D graphics, and many other functions.
	 
	Dual 32k on-chip L1 caches 

	Support for up to 2MB of backside L2 cache 

	On-chip debugging support 

	1.8 Volt processor core 

	Support for work with the "Chaparral" motherboard chipset, which
allows 
	for bus speeds up to 100MHz and 33/66MHz PCI as well as two-channel
DMA 
	(Direct Memory Access) technology for PCI expansion devices. While
not 
	confirmed, this chipset may also support ECC (Error Correction and 
	Control) SDRAM as well as pairing up SDRAM for accelerated memory 
	performance.  

	Should ship in volume by mid 1999 at 400MHz.
	 
	Estimated performance of 22 SPECint at 400MHz. 

	Overall, speed should be 30-50% faster than a common G3 -- add to
that 
	AltiVec's performance, and many professional and game applications
will 
	begin to reach in the supercomputing range of performance.

	V'Ger -- 500+ MHz

	Vger will push the PowerPC into completely new realms, with a swath
of 
	impressive features that begin to grow the scalability of the chips
in 
	the consumer space:

	First silicon at 500Mhz, derivative processors should reach 800MHz,
with 
	successors breaking 1GHz.
	 
	Multiple cores, which can be turned on and off on-the-fly to scale 
	processor performance and power usage/heat.
	 
	Each core performs as fast as one Max, allowing for tremendous
speed.
	 
	0.15 copper wiring process, reducing power and heat further. 

	On-chip L2 caches boost memory performance and further decrease
frontside 
	bus usage
	 
	External Level 3 caches of 8MB or more are available to accelerate
by 
	tremendous amounts repetitive tasks like Web serving, Emulation,and 
	Rendering.
	 
	Should ship in late 1999 or early 2000. 

	Performance scales by number of cores (1, 2, or 4). Each core should

	perform similarly to a Max per MHz. 

	All in all, a very impressive array of options for the Mac to move 
	forward into realms of performance and flexibility that the x86 and
even 
	Merced platforms cannot begin to match. More details about AltiVec
and 
	other aspects of the next generation of PowerPC processors next
week.

	**And not just for the Mac :) **