Computer giant, International Business Machines (IBM) yesterday
unveiled details about the microprocessor in a new version of
its mainframe, which Big Blue claims is the world's fastest
computer chip that can process information at a record breaking
speed of 5.2 GHz. IBM says it spent over $1.5 billion in
research and development on the zEnterprise line, and spent more
than three years collaborating with some of its top clients
around the world. The z196 processor is a four-core chip that
contains 1.4 billion transistors on a 512-square millimeter (mm)
surface. The chip was designed by IBM engineers and was
manufactured using IBM's 45 nanometer (nm) SOI processor
technology in the company's 300mm fab in New York. The Armonk,
New York-based IBM said IBM labs in Austin, Texas, Germany,
Israel and India also made major contributions to the z196
processor development. The mainframe processor makes use of
IBM's patented embedded DRAM (eDRAM) technology, which allows
IBM to place dense DRAM caches, or components, o