IBM Power 5 very much alive

And the same paper reports that work is well underway on Power 6.

It shows that IBM is still serious about using its microprocessor technology, and unlike HP has got the funds to give it a big boost.

DEC, then Compaq and then HP are rumoured to have made practically no money out of the Alpha chip, which when it launched was predicted to take over the world.

In fact, sources claim that they actually lost around $80 a chip. A foolish decision by a Compaq executive meant it halted a port of Microsoft application software to the platform.

We'll find out more about UltraSPARC from Sun soon enough, but developing and then making chips is such an expensive biz that the market is consolidating, and fast.

We originally saw the story on AMD Zone.

The Austin American Statesman says that Power 5 will come out in the first half of next year and it already has signed up the Lawrence Livermore National Labs for a supercomputer which will use a staggering 12,544 Power 5 chips.

Golly!

L'INQ
Austin American Statesman