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630 - IBM's Power3 chip
CPU
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630
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630+
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Speed
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200 MHz
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600 MHz
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Size
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15 million transistors
.29 µm process
270 mm2
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15 million transistors
.18 µm copper/SOI process
?? mm2
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Power
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Cache
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32K i / 64K d
128-way set associative
8 way interleaved
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Units
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Fetch 8, issue 4
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3 Fixed
2 FP
2 Load/Store
Branch
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Date
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Mid 98
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Early 99
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This was originally called the 630 processor, and is a 64
Bit PowerPC. The amazing thing is how many instructions per
cycle this thing does. It is a very serious competitor for
the top end, despite being a slow MHz machine. With a
SpecInt 20 and Spec Float 45, this is a serious machine at
200 MHz, despite a very conservative process. But IBM is
expected to quickly move to a .18µm copper process, and
then add their SOI (Silicon on Insulator), and bump the
speed to over 600 MHz -- which should produce Spec numbers
of well over 30/70 (int/float) -- which puts it near the top
of the class.
No, this processor will likely not be use in
PowerMacs. It is a 64 bit processor, but the current Mac OS
is not 64 bit (addressing). Yes, Apple could support it if
they wanted -- but it would require a custom motherboard
(case, support chips, and so on), that would cost a lot and
the performance difference for most Mac Applications would
be pretty nominal. So it may be a great processor, but it
probably would not make a great Mac processor.
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