Maker Pro
Maker Pro

IBM Power6 to 6GHz

C

Cliff

Jan 1, 1970
0
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/07/ibm_power6_show/

[
The Power6 chip will run between 4GHz and 5GHz, and has been shown to hum away
at 6GHz in the lab. IBM reckons that some process technology breakthroughs have
allowed it to kick the frequency higher while still keeping heat and power
consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6 will be twice
as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun Microsystems.
]

[
IBM claims to have made major performance gains by stretching and squeezing
silicon and using insulation techniques.
]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=670
 
C

carneyke

Jan 1, 1970
0
Cliff,
Thanks for the good press on my company ! I usually don't like anything
you post but.......
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Cliff,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/07/ibm_power6_show/

[
The Power6 chip will run between 4GHz and 5GHz, and has been shown to hum away
at 6GHz in the lab. IBM reckons that some process technology breakthroughs have
allowed it to kick the frequency higher while still keeping heat and power
consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6 will be twice
as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun Microsystems.
]

< sarcastic_mode >
Ok, this one is for servers but usually that means the laptop uPs will
be pushed higher as well. Then the bloatware bloats some more, to fill
that new uP with work. Now the runtime of a laptop will go from the
already pathetic 1.5hrs to a half hour or so. 5 minutes of that will be
required for the boot process, another 5 minutes for shutdown. Leaving
about 20 minutes to play solitaire.
< /sarcastic_mode >

Regards, Joerg
 
J

Jim Thompson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Cliff,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/07/ibm_power6_show/

[
The Power6 chip will run between 4GHz and 5GHz, and has been shown to hum away
at 6GHz in the lab. IBM reckons that some process technology breakthroughs have
allowed it to kick the frequency higher while still keeping heat and power
consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6 will be twice
as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun Microsystems.
]

< sarcastic_mode >
Ok, this one is for servers but usually that means the laptop uPs will
be pushed higher as well. Then the bloatware bloats some more, to fill
that new uP with work. Now the runtime of a laptop will go from the
already pathetic 1.5hrs to a half hour or so. 5 minutes of that will be
required for the boot process, another 5 minutes for shutdown. Leaving
about 20 minutes to play solitaire.
< /sarcastic_mode >

Regards, Joerg

Sno-o-o-o-ort ;-)

I rarely travel with Laptop anymore... no room to drop the tray and
actually get fingers onto keyboard :-(

...Jim Thompson
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Jim,

I rarely travel with Laptop anymore... no room to drop the tray and
actually get fingers onto keyboard :-(

I don't either but for me it's because of the paltry battery runtimes of
'modern' laptops. From 5hrs in 90's to 1.5hrs in the new millenium. What
a progress.

Regards, Joerg
 
R

Roy L. Fuchs

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Jim,



I don't either but for me it's because of the paltry battery runtimes of
'modern' laptops. From 5hrs in 90's to 1.5hrs in the new millenium. What
a progress.

Turn down the CPU speed, and stop using it to watch DVDs. D'oh!

Also, carry a battery booster battery pack, or an additional
battery.
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Roy,
Turn down the CPU speed, and stop using it to watch DVDs. D'oh!

My old Compaq could do that, the new Dell can't. I don't own any DVDs,
not even a DVD player at home ;-)

Also, carry a battery booster battery pack, or an additional
battery.


So why didn't I have to do that on my old Compaq? I didn't even have
Li-Ion, just a plain NiCd. I could have bought a high capacity NiCd to
yield a couple hours more but 5hrs was plenty so I didn't.

Regards, Joerg
 
P

Phil Hobbs

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
Hello Jim,



I don't either but for me it's because of the paltry battery runtimes of
'modern' laptops. From 5hrs in 90's to 1.5hrs in the new millenium. What
a progress.

Regards, Joerg

Dunno. I get about 4-1/2 hours from my Thinkpad T42p, if all I'm doing
is typing or reading. That's in XP--OS/2 and Fedora Core 4 both come in
at about 3 hours, because they don't understand all the latest ACPI stuff.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs
 
J

Jon Elson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Joerg said:
Hello Cliff,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/07/ibm_power6_show/

[
The Power6 chip will run between 4GHz and 5GHz, and has been shown to
hum away
at 6GHz in the lab. IBM reckons that some process technology
breakthroughs have
allowed it to kick the frequency higher while still keeping heat and
power
consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6
will be twice
as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun
Microsystems.
]

< sarcastic_mode >
Ok, this one is for servers but usually that means the laptop uPs will
be pushed higher as well. Then the bloatware bloats some more, to fill
that new uP with work. Now the runtime of a laptop will go from the
already pathetic 1.5hrs to a half hour or so. 5 minutes of that will
be required for the boot process, another 5 minutes for shutdown.
Leaving about 20 minutes to play solitaire.
< /sarcastic_mode >

Actually, these advances may improve run time by reducing power consumption.
Yeah bloatware is a real problem, and somebody has to put a lid on this.
I had
hoped Linux would be the sane voice, but they are going the bloat route,
too.

Fuel cell developments are getting pretty close, in fact you can
actually buy
a fuel cell add-on power source today, but it is more expensive than the
laptop.
That is going to change as they go from extreme gadgets to mainstream. The
FAA still has some concerns about people carrying bottles of 100% methanol
around on planes. TSA hasn't even heard about this yet, but they will
have their
say, I'm sure.

Jon
 
J

Joerg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Phil,
Dunno. I get about 4-1/2 hours from my Thinkpad T42p, if all I'm doing
is typing or reading. That's in XP--OS/2 and Fedora Core 4 both come in
at about 3 hours, because they don't understand all the latest ACPI stuff.

That gives me hope that they'll learn the ropes again. Although, in the
good old days you didn't have to buy a high end laptop to yield that
much runtime. Mine was a bottom of the line Contura 410, monochrome
screen and 66MHz max clock speed. Did all I do today, Word, CAD, SPICE,
databases, Internet, email and the occasional C compilation.

Regards, Joerg
 
Roy said:
Turn down the CPU speed, and stop using it to watch DVDs. D'oh!

Also, carry a battery booster battery pack, or an additional
battery.


I bought a used Compaq laptop (366 MHz) with *no* battery, so I use a
12V jumpstart battery plus a 75W inverter, and plug the laptop cord
into the inverter. Lasts for hours. Never left it on long enough to
time it, though.

Was *really* nice when we had a blackout. I used the laptop to check
the local news websites (phone line still worked) to see what the
problem was. Just a blown power transformer - no nuclear attack.
Whew.
 
Joerg said:
Hello Cliff,

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/07/ibm_power6_show/

[
The Power6 chip will run between 4GHz and 5GHz, and has been shown to hum away
at 6GHz in the lab. IBM reckons that some process technology breakthroughs have
allowed it to kick the frequency higher while still keeping heat and power
consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6 will be twice
as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun Microsystems.
]

< sarcastic_mode >
Ok, this one is for servers but usually that means the laptop uPs will
be pushed higher as well. Then the bloatware bloats some more, to fill
that new uP with work. Now the runtime of a laptop will go from the
already pathetic 1.5hrs to a half hour or so. 5 minutes of that will be
required for the boot process, another 5 minutes for shutdown. Leaving
about 20 minutes to play solitaire.

Well IBM killed themselves with laptops.
Since the idiots don't make ANYTHING,
that isn't lifetime-guaranteed backward compatible with
*Cell Phone batteries*.
 
R

Roy L. Fuchs

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hello Roy,


My old Compaq could do that, the new Dell can't. I don't own any DVDs,
not even a DVD player at home ;-)




So why didn't I have to do that on my old Compaq? I didn't even have
Li-Ion, just a plain NiCd. I could have bought a high capacity NiCd to
yield a couple hours more but 5hrs was plenty so I didn't.


Maybe it's due to the fact that there is an order of magnitude more
(or more) clock ticks rolling by every second.
 
R

Roy L. Fuchs

Jan 1, 1970
0
I bought a used Compaq laptop (366 MHz) with *no* battery, so I use a
12V jumpstart battery plus a 75W inverter, and plug the laptop cord
into the inverter. Lasts for hours. Never left it on long enough to
time it, though.

Was *really* nice when we had a blackout. I used the laptop to check
the local news websites (phone line still worked) to see what the
problem was. Just a blown power transformer - no nuclear attack.
Whew.

What ever happened to the good old days of AM radio civil defense?
AM radio 700, WLW. The voice of Cincinnati! The only station in the
country assigned to that frequency. There is also another out this
way (westward). Don't know the call letters. They still do civil
defense broadcasts though... both IIRC.

The TV stations do as well. That's where the "This is a test of the
Emergency Broadcast System." Used to be tested on the first Wednesday
of each new month. Tornado sirens in the midwest do that as well. At
12 noon on said days.
 
Z

zadoc

Jan 1, 1970
0
|>Hello Jim,
|>
|>
|>> I rarely travel with Laptop anymore... no room to drop the tray and
|>> actually get fingers onto keyboard :-(
|>>
|>
|>I don't either but for me it's because of the paltry battery runtimes of
|>'modern' laptops. From 5hrs in 90's to 1.5hrs in the new millenium. What
|>a progress.
|>
|>Regards, Joerg
|>
|>

<Zadoc comment starts>

I don't have a laptop, so have never considered the problem of
short battery life. Can see why it could be a problem, though.
Presume that "X" is a US businessman flying to Australia. I
don't know the current flight time offhand, but say 16 hours,
which seems well beyond the battery capacity of most portables.

Now lets presume for a moment that most would run from a plug in
adapter off mains voltage of 120 VAC 60 Hz or 240 VAC 50 Hz.

The international airline business is pretty competitive. The
fares are regulated by IATA but there is more flexibility on the
services provided.

So how much trouble would it be for an airline to provide power
to each seat position so they could advertise that a businessman
could use his portable all the way without draining the
batteries?

I would think this might be a good selling point.

Of course, providing mains voltage to each seat position might be
inconvienent or even risky. It would be better to provide the
proper DC voltage at the proper polarity for any computer, or for
that matter, or for that matter, any personal entertainment
device.

Computers and entertainment devices take different input voltages
at different polarities, so, as an intellectual excercise, what
would be the best and cheapest way for an airline to implement
such a service?

Now, sure each seat position could have a wide range of plugs and
sockets, but if the passenger plugs his computer into the wrong
one and fries it, he or she won't be happy.

How can this be made idiot-proof to the point that the passenger
booking a seat could be asked if he will be bringing a portable
computer, and if so, its details.

I would think that all he should have to do is to say that he had
a brand "XYZ" model "1234" and when he boarded the proper DC
power cord would be waiting to serve him.

Same for his wife and kids, perhaps, if they are going on a
holiday. Each seat position should be able to accomodate a wide
variety of entertainment devices.

Perhaps one of you engineering types can pick up the concept and
sell it to an airline?
</ Zadoc comment ends>

An American in Australia, posting to misc.survivalism

Cheers,
[email protected]
 
P

Pope Secola VI

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jim said:
Hello Cliff,


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/07/ibm_power6_show/

[
The Power6 chip will run between 4GHz and 5GHz, and has been shown to hum away
at 6GHz in the lab. IBM reckons that some process technology breakthroughs have
allowed it to kick the frequency higher while still keeping heat and power
consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6 will be twice
as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun Microsystems.
]


You aren't going to see the power 6 in a laptop or even a desktop any
time soon. The power 6 is just a little larger (by reports) than the
power 5. The power five is a huge chip. That sucker is at least 4
inches square. It's a neat chip but it is expensive to manufacture.
The smallest P5 series system is the 520 and that thing goes for about
$8000 stripped. To pop a 520 with 2 four packs of disks, with one four
pack plugged into the internal integrated Ultra320 SCSI controller, the
second four pack plugged into a separate PCI-X Dual Channel Ultra320
SCSI Raid controller, a GXT135 graphics card, you are looking at $12000
for the whole shooting match. Of course you have redundant every thing.
You can change disks, power supplies, cooling fans, With out taking the
thing down.

However even at $12,000 we sell them like Ihop sells Hot Cakes on a
Sunday morning. I have personally loaded and configured them with AIX
version 5.2 Maintenance level 4 to AIX 5.3, plus SLES (SuSE Linux
Enterprise Server) Version 9.3 and shipped over 300 in the last 5
months. Though the 520 is small you can fit over 2 terabytes(8 250 gig
disks) of storage in them. If you fit them with a Fibre Channel HBA and
put them in a Fibre fabric who knows how much storage you can have
access to. Load a VXA-2 tape drive (160 gig) and it Makes a dandy
little server that don't break.

We expect we won't see any Power 6 boxes until the first quarter of
2007. The big bosses are headed over to a big IBM whoopty doo in Las
Wages in March and should come back with a lot of info on them.


--
Censorship and Gun Control are the political equivalent of binding and
gagging a victim before raping and mugging them.

Such acts are carried out by the same thugs, one with a law degree from
a state pen, the other a law degree from a university for the same sick
perverted purposes which are to remove you from your property, liberty
and dignity, and bend you to will of others.
 
I

Ian Malcolm

Jan 1, 1970
0
zadoc said:
Joerg wrote:
|>Hello Jim,
|>
|>> I rarely travel with Laptop anymore... no room to drop the tray and
|>> actually get fingers onto keyboard :-(
|>
|>I don't either but for me it's because of the paltry battery runtimes of
|>'modern' laptops. From 5hrs in 90's to 1.5hrs in the new millenium. What
|>a progress.
|>
|>Regards, Joerg

<Zadoc comment starts>

I don't have a laptop, so have never considered the problem of
short battery life. Can see why it could be a problem, though.
Presume that "X" is a US businessman flying to Australia. I
don't know the current flight time offhand, but say 16 hours,
which seems well beyond the battery capacity of most portables.

Now lets presume for a moment that most would run from a plug in
adapter off mains voltage of 120 VAC 60 Hz or 240 VAC 50 Hz.

The international airline business is pretty competitive. The
fares are regulated by IATA but there is more flexibility on the
services provided.

So how much trouble would it be for an airline to provide power
to each seat position so they could advertise that a businessman
could use his portable all the way without draining the
batteries?

I would think this might be a good selling point.

Of course, providing mains voltage to each seat position might be
inconvienent or even risky. It would be better to provide the
proper DC voltage at the proper polarity for any computer, or for
that matter, or for that matter, any personal entertainment
device.

Computers and entertainment devices take different input voltages
at different polarities, so, as an intellectual excercise, what
would be the best and cheapest way for an airline to implement
such a service?

Now, sure each seat position could have a wide range of plugs and
sockets, but if the passenger plugs his computer into the wrong
one and fries it, he or she won't be happy.

How can this be made idiot-proof to the point that the passenger
booking a seat could be asked if he will be bringing a portable
computer, and if so, its details.

I would think that all he should have to do is to say that he had
a brand "XYZ" model "1234" and when he boarded the proper DC
power cord would be waiting to serve him.

Same for his wife and kids, perhaps, if they are going on a
holiday. Each seat position should be able to accomodate a wide
variety of entertainment devices.

Perhaps one of you engineering types can pick up the concept and
sell it to an airline?
</ Zadoc comment ends>
Like all good ideas someone else has had it before you. See
<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=475832>
for details of how to get your laptop hooked up.
 
F

Feltch Pipe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Anal Ah La said:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/07/ibm_power6_show/

[
The Power6 chip will run between 4GHz and 5GHz, and has been shown to hum
away
at 6GHz in the lab. IBM reckons that some process technology breakthroughs
have
allowed it to kick the frequency higher while still keeping heat and power
consumption issues under control. All told, IBM claims that Power6 will be
twice
as fast as competing server processors from Intel, AMD and Sun
Microsystems.
]

[
IBM claims to have made major performance gains by stretching and
squeezing
silicon and using insulation techniques.
]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=670

Loose Bowles
 
I

Ian Stirling

Jan 1, 1970
0
In sci.electronics.design Jon Elson said:
Actually, these advances may improve run time by reducing power consumption.
Yeah bloatware is a real problem, and somebody has to put a lid on this.
I had
hoped Linux would be the sane voice, but they are going the bloat route,
too.

You have the source, and access to older versions of stuff.
I run the same software on a PII300Mhz laptop - which works just fine,
as my 1800Mhz duron.
 
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