IBM: World’s Fastest Chip?

The new z196 processor will ship in a new version of the IBM mainframe — the zEnterprise System — beginning Sept. 10. IBM Distinguished Engineer, Jim Porell, told CIO Insight sister publication eWEEK that the chip in IBM’s new zEnterprise System clocks in at record-breaking 5.2 GHz, a speed that can handle the growing number of business transactions as global connectivity and data proliferate.

In a press release about the new chip, IBM said the 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.

For example, according to a study by Berg Insight, the number of active users of mobile banking and related financial services worldwide is forecast to increase from 55 million in 2009 to 894 million in 2015.

The z196 processor is a four-core chip that contains 1.4 billion transistors on a 512-square millimeter (mm) surface, Porell said. It was designed by IBM engineers in Poughkeepsie, NY, 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 new zEnterprise technology is the result of an investment of more than $1.5 billion in IBM research and development in the zEnterprise line, as well as more than three years of collaboration with some of IBM’s top clients around the world.

For more, read the eWeek article IBM Claims World’s Fastest Chip.