IBM chip uses glass to insulate silicon
IBM chip uses glass to insulate silicon
Company says insulation technology could boost computing performanceBy Patricia Daukantas
GCN Staff
IBM Corp.'s new silicon-on-insulator, or SOI, processor technology could boost computing speeds up to 30 percent, a company official said.
SOI puts a thin layer of glass insulation between chip transistors and the underlying silicon. The insulation reduces electrical leakage and improves performance, said Ian Jarman, product marketing manager for IBM's AS/400 line.
The first SOI chip, IBM's PowerPC IStar, also incorporates IBM-developed copper circuitry that boosts the number of transistors per chip while reducing power consumption.
The SOI processors are making their debut in three new servers in IBM's AS/400 product line, which shares much of the technology behind IBM's RS/6000 family of Unix servers and supercomputers, Jarman said. IBM has been adding copper-connection processors to the RS/6000 line since last fall.
AS/400 servers, used mainly for payroll and financial applications, have integrated security and database features not found in the RS/6000 line, Jarman said. The three SOI models are four- to 24-way servers that run the latest IBM OS/400 operating system, Version 4 Release 5.
The AS/400e 820 takes one or two processors, the 830 model two to eight, and the 840 model 12 or 24.
To combine OS/400 and Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000 applications on a single system, IBM has integrated Intel-based Netfinity servers with the new AS/400s, Jarman said.
An integrated Netfinity server consists of a processor board with a 700-MHz Pentium III chip and up to 4G of memory. Up to 16 Netfinity boards can plug into one of the AS/400 servers for managing both OS/400 and NT applications while maintaining storage and backup under OS/400.
The new AS/400e servers come with Gigabit Ethernet LAN adapters, as well as 100-Mbps token-ring adapters.
The entry-level, two-way AS/400e 270 uses non-SOI copper-connected processors and accepts up to 8G of memory. It was designed for electronic commerce, data marts and other business intelligence applications, Jarman said. It can combine AS/400, Windows 2000 and AIX applications via an integrated Netfinity server and IBM's AS/400 Portable Application Solutions Environment.
Organizations that have Lotus Domino groupware can use either the 270 or 820 as a dedicated server for multiple Domino tasks.
AS/400e models with minimum disk and memory start around $36,100 for the 820, $166,000 for the 830 and $775,000 for the 840. A 270 server in a minimal configuration is about $13,600, Jarman said.
Contact IBM at 800-426-2255.