By Richard Adhikari
IBM’s new Power7 processors provide the foundation for several new Unix server offerings from the company. Each Power7 processor has up to eight cores and four threads per core. Power7 also features “TurboCore” mode and has “intelligent threads,” meaning the number of threads varies depending on the workload.

IBM on Monday launched a one-two punch with its new Power7 processors, which the company claims have twice the performance of the Power6 line but consume less power. A Power7 ceramic module with a lid is shown here bottom side facing up. Each Power7 processor contains eight cores, with four threads per core. These processors power IBM’s Unix servers, four new models of which were also unveiled Monday in a move that might strengthen IBM’s position in the Unix server market.

The Power7’s Tech Specs
The Power7 uses a 45 nanometer process. Each Power7 processor has up to eight cores and four threads per core. That’s four times the maximum number of cores and eight times the number of threads per chip as the Power6.

The Power7 has a TurboCore mode, which is optimized for database and other transaction-oriented workloads. This runs with four cores active and with most of the resources from the other four cores behind the eight active cores. Doing this gives the four active cores more cache memory and memory bandwidth and increases their clock speeds.

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