AUSTIN, Tex. -- IBM Corp. today announced it is putting silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology to work along with copper interconnects to significantly boost the performance of central processing units inside new server computers, called the pSeries 680. The result, said IBM, is a new lineup of 64-bit servers that are 63% faster than the company's existing S80 systems, which are based on copper processors using standard silicon substrates.
Moreover, IBM today claimed its new eServer p680 units trounce servers from rivals Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Packed with 24 SOI copper processors, the p680 servers are capable of beating the online-transaction performance of Sun and HP systems, which have twice as many CPUs, according to IBM. The new servers, code named "Turbo," will be in volume shipments to customers on Nov. 17, said IBM.
In an interview with SBN, microprocessor managers in Austin described an aggressive roadmap that aims to increase server performance in 2001 with the addition of IBM's new Power4 CPU, which was described last week during the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose. The Power4 integrates two processors, Level 2 cache, and other functions on a chip with 170 million transistors.
Following the launch of SOI copper-based Power4 processors, IBM plans to add low-k dielectric insulators to the CPU technology mix in 2002 for even higher levels of server performance, said Mark Papermaster, director of Power microprocessor development at IBM in Austin.
"We started shipping copper processors in IBM's server line in 1999, and now in 2000, we're adding copper and SOI," Papermaster said. "We are going to continue very aggressive lithography reductions along with some of these key features. But without copper and SOI, you start to tail off in the ability to increase performance in next-generation devices," he said.
Next year, the Power4 processor will be put to work inside IBM servers, using SOI and seven-level copper interconnect technologies. That technology is similar to the 0.18-micron drawn process 0.08-micron effective gate length process used to make the 680 CPUs, which have 44 million transistors on 128 mm2 silicon-on-insulator die.
To back up the low-k, copper, and SOI technology plans, IBM announced a $5 billion capital investment program last week to expand its production capacity, including a $2.5 billion 300-mm wafer fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. (see Oct. 10 story).
"We came out with copper three years ago and everyone tried to pooh-pooh that move, and now everyone is doing it replacing aluminum interconnects with copper," noted Joel Tendler, program director of technology assessment for IBM's processor unit in Austin. "The same thing was the case with silicon-on-insulator," he said, referring to IBM's 1998 announcement to put SOI into commercial production. "At the time it wasn't seen as important, but now it is. The same thing will happen with low-k," he predicted.
IBM says the addition of SOI with copper increases performance of its CPUs by up to 30% because silicon-on-insulator wafers reduce the electrical leakage of millions of transistors on the chips. The 680 processor design increases the CPU's memory address to 96 gigabytes and it breaks performance records for eight benchmarks used in Internet Web and e-business transactions, according to IBM.
IBM said it primary objective is to overtake the Unix market leader Sun Microsystems of Mountain View, Calif., which last month announced its copper-based UltraSparc III processors (see Sept. 27 story). Compared to Sun's E1000 system, the new IBM p680 system is capable of outperforming its rival in transaction processing by 38% at slightly lower costs per transactions. Compared to HP's V2500 32-way server, the p680 is 116% more powerful in the same transaction benchmark at two-thirds the cost.
