IBM® PowerPC® 970FX/970MP Processors

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1 January 2007

IBM®

USA

Electronics and Computers

Computer Hardware

"The 90nm IBM PowerPC 970FX leverages patented fabrication processes and power management techniques, along with ten years of 64-bit computing experience, to achieve high performance on compute- and bandwidth-intensive applications while maintaining compatibility with 32-bit code. Apparently, Apple appreciated the choices IBM processor architects made when designing the 970 family; dual 130nm PowerPC 970s form the foundation of the Power Mac G5, and the PowerPC 970FX is at the core of the Apple Xserve G5, a rack-mount server. Reliability, performance, backward compatibility, and years of IBM research and development have come together to produce 64-bit computing for the masses."

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"The IBM® PowerPC® 970FX microprocessor covers a large frequency and power envelope using dynamic frequency and voltage scaling. This power-tuning allows you to quickly change the frequency from full frequency to f/2 and f/4 at a system level; for additional power savings, you can apply the resulting voltage reduction. A power envelope shows the complete range of frequency and power available for the microprocessor. In addition to the full frequency power-tuning capabilities, the power-saving modes of doze, nap, and deep nap reduce the power envelope, allowing for a reduction of average power consumption."

"To achieve the high performance of the G5 system, certain thermal and mechanical challenges had to be overcome. This paper describes how through a cooperative effort between Apple and IBM, a BGA reliability enhancement was evaluated and successfully implemented. Use of BGA underfill strengthens the BGA connections between the processor module and the processor card and increases long term reliability performance affected by creep and cyclic fatigue. David Edwards, Hope Chambers, Mukta Farooq, Lewis Goldmann, Amir Salehi (2003)

"The production of electronic chips for mobile phones and computers that have etched on them only 65 or 90 nanometers wide has already been commercialised. Such uses of nanotechnology in electronics to miniatruise electronic compounents do not in themselves pose any threats to human health, althoufh there may be additional concerns arising from novel processes and/or process chemicals necessary to carry out such nanoscale constructions." Allsopp,M., Walters, A. & Santillo, D. (2007)

Silicon

90 nm Silicon on Insulator

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Electronics Applications

Nanostructured bulk

Category 1 (Extensively verified claim)

Generic Product