POWERPC 602 AND 603E UNWRAPPED - 603E BEATS 601 INTEGER PERFORMANCE.

(February 14th 1995) IBM and Motorola officially pulled the wraps off
two new members of the PowerPC family today. The PowerPC 603e processor
is the new version of the 603 that we've previously been calling the
603+. As expected the, new chip has a 16k-Byte cache, double that of its
predecessor, and the clock speed is raised to 100MHz, from 80MHz.

Most notably, the 100MHz 603 is estimated to have better integer
performance than the 100MHz 601. The companies estimate the PowerPC 603e
microprocessor will produce a SPECint92 of 120 and a SPECfp92 of 105,
compared to SPECint92 110, and SPECfp92 130 for the 100MHz 601. Today's
80MHz 603s manage slightly better than 75 SPECint92 and SPECfp92 85.

However the companies seem to have decided against using the new,
compact transistor geometries, introduced with the 100MHz 601.
Consequently the bigger cache of the 603e has grown the chip, which
measures 8.4mm x 11.67mm.

As previously reported, the PowerPC 602 is the first joint IBM/Motorola
PowerPC to be aimed at the embedded market. The processor has dual
4k-byte instruction and data caches on its tiny 7.07mm x 7.07mm die.
The companies say it has 1.2 W typical power dissipation, using
0.5-micron CMOS.

On the performance side, the 66MHz 602 is supposed to run at 132MIPS
with an estimated SPECint92 rating of 40. SPECfp figures for the
processor were conspicuous by their absence, despite the fact that it is
meant to have a built in floating point unit. IBM and Motorola will aim
the 602 at home entertainment and computer/education devices and at
personal digital assistants. 3DO and Matsushita are publicly committed
to using the chip.

Both microprocessors are scheduled to go into mass production in the
second half of the year. No word yet on pricing and availability - IBM
and Motorola will announce their policies separately.