Power7+ Processor And Intelligent Energy; Comparison Of The Power7+, Power7, And Power6 Processors - IBM Power 720 Overview

Small physical footprint
The performance of eDRAM when implemented on-chip is similar to conventional SRAM
but requires far less physical space. IBM on-chip eDRAM uses only one-third of the
components used in conventional SRAM, which has a minimum of six transistors to
implement a 1-bit memory cell.
Low energy consumption
The on-chip eDRAM uses only 20% of the standby power of SRAM.

2.1.6 POWER7+ processor and Intelligent Energy

Energy consumption is an important area of focus for the design of the POWER7+ processor,
which includes Intelligent Energy features that help to dynamically optimize energy usage and
performance so that the best possible balance is maintained. Intelligent Energy features, such
as EnergyScale, work with IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager™ to dynamically
optimize processor speed based on thermal conditions and system utilization.

2.1.7 Comparison of the POWER7+, POWER7, and POWER6 processors

Table 2-2 shows comparable characteristics between the generations of POWER7+,
POWER7, and POWER6 processors.
Table 2-2 Comparison of technology for the POWER7+ processor and the prior generations
Characteristics
Technology
Die size
Maximum cores
Maximum SMT
threads per core
Maximum frequency
L2 Cache
L3 Cache
Memory support
I/O bus
Enhanced cache
mode (TurboCore)
a. Only supported on the Power 795.
50
IBM Power 720 and 740 Technical Overview and Introduction
POWER7+ POWER7
32 nm 45 nm
2
567 mm 567 mm
8 8
4 threads 4 threads
4.3 GHz 4.25 GHz
256 KB per core 256 KB per core
10 MB of FLR-L3 cache 4 MB or 8 MB of FLR-L3
per core with each core cache per core with
having access to the full each core having
80 MB of L3 cache, access to the full 32 MB
on-chip eDRAM of L3 cache, on-chip
eDRAM
DDR3 DDR3
Two GX++ Two GX++
No Yes
POWER6
65 nm
2
341 mm
2
2 threads
5.0 GHz
4 MB per core
32 MB off-chip eDRAM
ASIC
DDR2
One GX++
a
No
2