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Company Continues Rapid Pace of PowerPC Development; First Systems Unveiled
Today
FISHKILL, N.Y., July 22, 1996 - IBM today announced the PowerPC 604e
microprocessor running at 225 MHz - the first desktop microprocessor to
achieve this clock speed and the fastest available version of the PowerPC.
The 225 MHz announcement comes just two months after the introduction of the
PowerPC 603e and PowerPC 604e microprocessors at 166 to 200 MHz.
Systems with this fastest PowerPC microprocessor are being announced
simultaneously. Power Computing of Round Rock, Texas, today announced
PowerTower Pro, a new line of high-volume systems using the PowerPC 604e at
speeds of 180 to 225 MHz.
"We continue to push speed and performance levels for PowerPC processors,
demonstrating our commitment to the PowerPC architecture and offering our
customers microprocessors that are the heart of high-performance, low-power
systems," said Ron Black, director of PowerPC, IBM Microelectronics.
The new processor has an estimated SPECint95 of 8.3-9.0* at 225 MHz and a
SPECfp95 of 6.5-7.5,* depending on system configuration. With higher
performance than the fastest Pentium Pro, the PowerPC 604e microprocessor at
225 MHz offers workstation-class performance at a desktop price. "With the
impressive performance of the new PowerPC 604e microprocessor, Power
Computing is now able to offer the fastest desktop personal computer on the
market," said Steve Kahng, president and CEO of Power Computing. "The
PowerPC 604e microprocessor is another major step forward, igniting an
explosion of power and performance for Mac OS systems like the PowerTower
Pro."
"Apple is pleased that PowerPC is leading the personal computer
microprocessor industry in performance," said Gary Little, senior vice
president, Power Mac Division, Apple Computer. "Apple is excited about the
performance of the PowerPC 604e microprocessor family and will use the new
225 MHz version as soon as it can."
Other major users of the PowerPC microprocessor, including DayStar Digital,
UMAX and Groupe BULL, said they will use this most powerful version in
upcoming products. DayStar Digital intends shortly to introduce the first
multiprocessing systems based on this processor. Groupe BULL plans to use
the PowerPC 604e at speeds of 200 MHz and beyond in forthcoming generations
of Escala multiple operating systems servers.
Pricing and Availability:
The PowerPC 604e microprocessor at 225 MHz is sampling now with a number of
major PowerPC customers. Production shipments will begin in August. It is
priced at $594 in OEM quantities of 1,000. Other speeds of the PowerPC 604e
microprocessor are shipping now at the following prices in OEM quantities of
1,000: 200 MHz, $523; 180 MHz, $424; and 166 MHz, $375.
IBM Microelectronics, as a merchant market supplier, offers products that
range from semiconductor design and fabrication to complete and fully tested
functional assemblies. The division develops, manufactures and markets
state-of-the-art semiconductor technologies, products, packaging and
services, including PowerPC, POWER and x86 architecture microprocessors.
Editors' Notes:
* Performance depends upon processor clock, bus speed ratio and L2 subsystem
size. System configuration to achieve SPECint95 of 9.0 and SPECfp95 of 7.5
was 225 MHz PowerPC 604e, a 75 MHz system bus and 1 megabyte of L2 cache and
64 MB of synchronous DRAM.