IBM to Ship World’s Fastest Microprocessor – z196 at 5.2GHz
IBM today announced details of the world’s fastest computer chip — the microprocessor in a new version of the IBM mainframe that begins shipping to customers on Sept. 10. This world record-breaking speed is necessary for businesses managing huge workloads, such as banks and retailers, especially as the world becomes increasingly more inter-connected, data has grown beyond the world’s storage capacity, and business transactions continue to skyrocket. Pictured below is IBM technician Asia Dent testing the world’s fastest microprocessor.
The z196 processor is a four-core chip that contains 1.4 billion transistors on a 512-square millimeter (mm) surface. The chip was designed by IBM engineers in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and was manufactured using IBM’s 45 nanometer (nm) SOI processor technology in the company’s 300mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. There were also major contributions to the z196 processor development from IBM labs in Austin, TX, Germany, Israel and India. The mainframe processor makes use of IBM’s patented embedded DRAM (eDRAM) technology, which allows IBM to place dense DRAM caches, or components, on the same chips as high-speed microprocessors, resulting in improved performance.
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