User:Henriok/Power Architecture
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Power Architecture is a broad term to describe similar instruction sets for RISC microprocessors developed and manufactured by such companies as IBM, Freescale, AMCC, Tundra and P.A. Semi. The governing body is Power.org, comprising of over 40 companies and organisations.
The term "Power Architecture" shouldn't be confused with the different generations of "POWER architectures" where the former is a broad term including all products based on POWER, PowerPC and Cell architectures. Power Architecture is a family name describing software, toolchain and end-user appliances and not a strict term describing specific products or technologies.
Contents |
[edit] Glossary
There are ample room for misunderstanding what is what when it comes to Power, POWER or PowerPC. Here is a short glossary.
Term | Description |
---|---|
POWER | Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC. A microprocessor architecture designed by IBM.
Separare article: IBM POWER |
PowerPC | Power Performance Computing. An 32/64 bit instruction set for microprocessors derived from POWER, including some new elements. Designed by the AIM alliance; Apple, IBM and Motorola.
Separate article: PowerPC |
PowerPC-AS | PowerPC-Advanced Series. Codename "Amazon". A purely 64-bit variant of PowerPC, including some elements from the POWER2 specification. Used in IBM's RS64 family processors and newer POWER processors. |
POWERn | Where n is a number from 1 to 7. A series of high end microprocessors built by IBM using different combinations of POWER, PowerPC and PowerPC-AS instruction sets. |
Cell | Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (CBEA), A microprocessor architecture designed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, where Power Architecture is a part.
Separate article: Cell microprocessor |
Power Architecture | The broad term designating all that is POWER, PowerPC and Cell including software, toolchain and end-user appliances. This is what this article is all about. |
Power ISA | A new instruction set, combining late versions of POWER and PowerPC instruction sets. Designed by IBM and Freescale. |
[edit] History
Power Architecture began its life at IBM in the late 1980s when they wanted a high performance RISC architecture for their mid range workstations and servers. The result was the "POWER architecture" with its first implementation in 1990 in the RISC System/6000, later RS/6000, computers. This was the 11 chip RIOS processor, later called POWER1. The RISC Single Chip (RSC) processor was developed from RIOS.
In 1992, Apple, Motorola and IBM formed the AIM alliance to develop a mass market version of the POWER processor. The result of this was the PowerPC architecture, a modified version of the POWER architecture. The first implementation was the PowerPC 601 in 1993, based heavily on RSC, found its way into Apple's Power Mac computers as well as IBM RS/6000 systems.
IBM expanded their POWER architecture for their RS/6000 systems which resulted in the eight chip POWER2 processor 1993 and a single chip version called P2SC, "POWER2 Super Chip", 1996.
In the early 1990s IBM sought to replace the CISC based AS/400 minicomputers with a RISC architecture. This new architecture's development code name was called "Amazon" became referred to as the PowerPC-AS ("Advanced Series" or "Amazon Series") amongst engineers working on the project. PowerPC-AS was to be a multi-processor server platform based on RSC. As development continued at IBM Research labs to extend RSC to support a 64-processor inter-connect and add features specific to AS/400. RS/6000 developers joined in and added some POWER2 features and it all ended up in the 64-bit processors of the RS64 line in 1997, used in AS/400 and RS/6000 systems.
The AIM Alliance kept developing PowerPC in 1995 through 1997 and released the second generation PowerPC processors: The PowerPC 602 for set top boxes and game consoles, the PowerPC 603 geared towards the embedded market and portable computers, the PowerPC 604 towards workstations and PowerPC 620 was a 64-bit high performance processor for servers. The 602 and 620 never found widespread use but the 603, 604 and their successors became very popular in their respective fields. Motorola and IBM also made the "Book E"[1] extension of PowerPC, used in embedded implementations: Motorola's PowerQUICC processors and IBM's PowerPC 400 family.
The last effort of the AIM Alliance was the third generation PowerPC 750 in 1997. Motorola and IBM went their separate ways in developing the PowerPC architecture after that. The "G3" processors found widespread use in both computer and embedded markets and IBM kept evolving the 750 family in the years to come but Motorola chose to focus on the embedded market with PowerPC SoC designs and what they called the forth generation PowerPC, the PowerPC 7400 which incorporated Altivec, a SIMD unit. The "PowerPC G4" came 1999 and was used by Apple in workstations and laptops and by various companies in the telecom market.
In 1998 came POWER3 which unified the PowerPC and POWER2 architectures but was only used in IBM's RS/6000 servers.
2000 saw the last implementation of the PowerPC-AS architecture, the RS64-IV, used in AS/400 and RS/6000, now renamed eServer iSeries and eServer pSeries respectively. IBM also makes the Gekko processor for use in Nintendo's game console Game Cube. It's based on the PowerPC 750CXe.
In 2001 IBM introduced the POWER4 which unified and replaced the PowerPC-AS and POWER3 architectures.
In 2002 Apple desperately need a new high end PowerPC part and got IBM to make the 64-bit PowerPC 970. Apple described it as the fifth generation PowerPC or "G5". 970 is derived from POWER4 but lacks some server oriented features, but does have an AltiVec unit. The 970 and its decendants is used by Apple and IBM and some high end embedded applications.
Tundra buys the PowerPC 100 family microcontrollers from Motorola in 2003 which spun off its semiconductor division into a new company called Freescale Semiconductor in 2004.
Culturecom licenses PowerPC technology from IBM for their V-Dragon processor in 2003.
POWER5 from IBM, introduced in 2004, is an evolution from POWER4 and bumps the PowerPC specification to v.2.01, and again to v.2.02[2] in 2005 with the POWER5+.
AMCC licenses IP and staff from IBM concerning the PowerPC 400 family in 2004.[1]
Power.org is founded the same year, by IBM alongside 15 other companies, as an organization who's mission is to developing products revolving around the Power Architecture. Its purpose is to develop, enable and promote Power Architecture technology.[2]
2005 also saw the specifications of the Cell processor,[3] jointly developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba over a four year period. Its primary use is for Sony's PlayStation 3. Cell uses a single 64-bit Power Architecture core, and adds 8 independent SIMD cores called SPEs. IBM also reveals the Xenon-processor, a tri-core 64-bit processor for use in Microsoft's Xbox 360. With the 32-bit PowerPC based Broadway processor that Nintendo will use for its Wii console, IBM has put Power Architecture processors in all three of the major seventh generation game consoles.
P.A. Semi licenses Power Architecture technology from IBM for use in its upcoming PWRficient processors.
Freescale joins Power.org in 2006 and IBM makes the specifications of PowerPC 405 freely available to researchers and academia.
Rapport Inc announces Kilocore technology where 1024 8-bit processing elements are strapped to a 32-bit PowerPC core.
Power.org released the Power ISA version 2.03.[4] in September 2006- All previous PowerPC implementations will be compatible with the 64-bit Power ISA. This will among other things add VMX, virtualization and variable length encoding (2-byte added to previously 4-byte instructions) to the specification.
Power.org releases the Power Architecture Platform Reference, PAPR, in the fourth quarter of 2006. It provides the foundation for development of Power Architecture based computers using the Linux operating system.
The top five and 28 of the top 50 fastest supercomputers in the world, according to the TOP500-list, are using IBM's technologies based on Power Architecture.
[edit] Licensing
Power Architecture are open for licensing by third parties. Licencees han chose to license a single predefined core, to a complete new family of Power Architecture products.
IBM licenses hard (predefined chip designs) and soft (synthesized design that can be used in different foundries) core implementations of both the 32-bit and 64-bit Power Architecture, either directly or through Power Design Center partners such as HCL Technologies. On a strategic basis, IBM also provide both microarchitecture and architecture licenses. A microarchitecture license enables licensees to implement a new pipeline for a core, but not to add or subtract instructions from the Power Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). Microarchitecture licenses cover both 64-bit and 32-bit, although individual licenses are available if necessary/desired.
IBM has announced plans to make the specifications of the PowerPC 405 core freely available to the academic and research community.[3]
Companies which have licenses developing their own processors based on the Power Architecture including Tundra, AMCC, HCL, Culturecom, P.A. Semi, Xilinx, Microsoft, Rapport, Sony, Toshiba and Cray.
[edit] Specification
[edit] Power ISA v.2.03
The specification for Power ISA v2.03[4] is based on the former PowerPC ISA v.2.02[2] in POWER5+ and the Book E[1] extension of the PowerPC specification. It is divided into five parts:
- Book I - User Instruction Ser Architecture covers the base instruction set availabe to the application programmer. It includes five new chapters regarding auxiliary processing units like DSPs and the AltiVec extension.
- Book II - Virtual Environment Architecture defines the storage model available to the application programmer.
- Book III-S - Operating Environment Architecture defines the supervisor instructions used for general purpose/server implementations. It's mainly the contents of the Book III of the former PowerPC ISA.
- Book III-E - Operating Environment Architecture defines the supervisor instructions used for embedded applications. It is derived from the former Book E.
- Book VLE - Variable Length Encoded Instruction Architecture defines alternative instructions and definitions intended for higher instruction density and very low end applications.
Compliant cores:
- e200, e500 and e700 from Freescale
- 405, 440, 460, 970, POWER5 and POWER6 from IBM
Not compliant cores:
- e300 and e600 from Freescale
- 403 and 401 from IBM.
[edit] Implementations
Some examples..
[edit] Processors
- PowerPC processors from IBM, Freescale, Tundra, AMCC, PA Semi, Atmel, among others.
- PowerQUICC processors from Freescale
- POWER processors from IBM
- BlueGene/L processors for supercomputers by IBM
- The Cell processor from IBM, Sony and Toshiba
- Virtex FPGAs from Xilinx
- V-Dragon CPU from Culturecom
- KC256 and Kilocore1025 from Rapport using Kilocore technology
- SeaStar communications processor in Cray XT3 supercomputer
[edit] Systems
- System i and System p servers and BlueGene/L supercomputers from IBM
- PowerMac, pre-Intel iMac, iBook and PowerBook computers from Apple
- PegasosPPC, EFIKA, Open Desktop Workstation and OSW PowerPC based computers from Genesi
- TiVo series 1 DVR
- Cell BE and PowerPC based computers from Mercury
- GameCube and Wii game consoles from Nintendo
- Xbox 360 from Microsoft
- PlayStation 3 from Sony
- RAD6000 and RAD750, radiation hardened platforms by BAE Systems for use in space
- Routers from Cisco
- Printers, cars, aircraft, medical imaging, telecom equipment, spacecraft, RIPs, set top boxes, etc, from a multitude of companies.
[edit] Operating Systems
- Linux from various vendors
- Yellow Dog Linux from Terra Soft which is specialized for Power Architecture hardware
- MkLinux[5] from Apple, based on Mach micro kernel
- NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and OpenDarwin
- Mac OS[5] and Mac OS X from Apple
- OS/2[5], AIX and i5/OS from IBM
- Solaris[5] from Sun and OpenSolaris
- Windows NT[5] from Microsoft
- Plan 9 from Bell Labs
- BeOS[5] from Be Inc
- eCos open source RTOS
- VxWorks from Wind River
- QNX
- LynxOS from LynuxWorks
- MorphOS from Genesi
- AmigaOS 4 from Hyperion Entertainment
[edit] References
- ^ a b PowerPC Book E v.1.0. IBM.
- ^ a b PowerPC Architecture Book, Version 2.02. IBM.
- ^ Cell BE Architecture v.1.0. IBM.
- ^ a b Power ISA™ v.2.03. Power.org.
- ^ a b c d e f These operating systems are discontinued on Power Architecture