• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Power.org Organization Announces Merged Power Instruction Set Architecture

    November 13, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    As promised, the Power.org organization that IBM created to promote and standardize the Power processor architecture and build of the ecosystem of hardware and software based on the Power chips has rolled out a new instruction set architecture, or ISA, for the Power platform.

    Power ISA Version 2.03 and the related Power Architecture Platform Requirements (PAPR) specification were both announced last week, and Power.org also unveiled a roadmap for the Power architecture and the processors that use it.

    The new ISA merges the architectural elements of IBM’s Power and PowerPC processors with the vector processing extensions created by Motorola before it spun out is PowerPC business as Freescale Semiconductor. The ISA also includes tweaks that IBM and Freescale have made for their embedded processors. Of course, to see the new Power ISA, you have to be one of the 40 members of the Power.org association. It is not a public document, but the ISA specs as well as those for Power-based reference platforms are available for free to members of Power.org.

    According to the announcement, Applied Micro Circuits, Freescale, IBM, Rapport, and Synopsys have all shared their Power processor roadmaps with members of Power.org. The Rapport Kilocore chip is perhaps the most interesting, in that it has a PowerPC core surrounded by 256 or 1,024 8-bit parallel processors all in one package.

    The questions now are whether the merged Power ISA includes the memory tags required to support i5/OS–which has to be true by definition–and whether future Power chip makers will make sure these instructions are in their chips. If they are, this could enable clone System i and System p servers–and that would be very interesting, indeed. The PAPR specification is completely focused on Linux-based systems, by the way. Decide for yourself what this means, and then get IBM to change it. PAPR should include AIX and i5/OS as well. It is time to open up the market a little, get some innovation going.

    RELATED STORIES

    Power.org Merges Power Instruction Sets, Gets New Members

    IBM, Freescale Reunite for the Sake of the Power Processors

    IBM Sets Up Power.org Community for Power Chips

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 15, Number 45 -- November 13, 2006

    Sponsored by
    OCEAN User Group

    OCEAN TechCon25 Online

    It’s an Exciting Time for IBM i !

    July 16 & 17, 2025 – ONLINE

    Two virtual days of learning, presented by an outstanding group of IBM’ers and IBM Champions, featuring leading-edge topics.

    FREE for OCEAN members!

    Register NOW!

    Annual (12-month) Individual OCEAN Memberships are $80 and a Corporate Membership is $250. A Corporate Membership would allow your entire company to have full access to the OCEAN website & video library and to attend OCEAN events at member rates. Act now because rates are increasing on August 1, 2025.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: The Rule of Fours for i5 Test Environments Create Database Files from SQL Queries

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 15 Issue: 45

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • Marywood University and IBM Team on System i Curricula Development
    • Online Backups Business Treating EVault Well
    • Power.org Organization Announces Merged Power Instruction Set Architecture
    • Arrow and Agilysys Cite Weakness in Proprietary Server Sales
    • IBM Lowers Interest Rates on Low Rate Financing Deal
    • Marywood University and IBM Team on System i Curricula Development
    • As I See It: The Workplace Politician
    • Interest in WDSc Indicates Small but Steady Change in App Dev
    • Power6 Ups the Ante for Virtualization, Power Management
    • Sirius Gets Equity Investment from Thoma Cressey

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable
    • How FalconStor Is Reinventing Itself, And Why IBM Noticed
    • Guru: When Procedure Driven RPG Really Works
    • Vendors Fill In The Gaps With IBM’s New MFA Solution
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 27
    • With Power11, Power Systems “Go To Eleven”
    • With Subscription Price, IBM i P20 And P30 Tiers Get Bigger Bundles
    • Izzi Buys CNX, Eyes Valence Port To System Z
    • IBM i Shops “Attacking” Security Concerns, Study Shows
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 26

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle