Earlier today, IBM announced its new-gen processor for data centers called POWER10. The new chipset is the successor to 2017’s Power9 processor built on the 14nm process. IBM has partnered with Samsung to manufacture its latest 7nm POWER10 processor.
The systems powered with POWER10 processor expected to be available in the second half of 2021. Compared to Power9, this new processor offers significant improvements in every category. It’s also the first 7nm processor from IBM.
IBM POWER10 processor manufactured by Samsung
As seen over the last few months, the semiconductor industry is in a bad phase with chipset ban on Huawei and confusion over the possible sale of chip designer ARM. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic has brought the whole world to a standstill.
Despite this, Samsung is thriving with orders from clients like Google, Nvidia, and IBM. Based on the rumors, Google will be releasing its own processor for smartphones in the coming years. While NVIDIA’s recent order is shared between Samsung and TSMC, the South Korean giant is possibly the sole manufacturer for IBM’s POWER10 processor.
Importantly, Samsung has already started prototyping 3nm chips based on the Gate All Around Field Effect Transistor (GAA-FET) technology. In Q2 2020, the company’s semiconductor business has posted 5.43 trillion won in operating profit. With people working from home, Samsung is also expecting strong demand for its memory chips going forward.
Samsung has already started prototyping 3nm chips
It has been #1 in market share for several hardware parts, including displays and memory chips. Unlike Intel, companies like IBM and AMD use external foundries for manufacturing. With Intel’s delay in manufacturing its 7nm chips, it’s a great time for others to grow their market share.
The company designed it to improve the in-core AI capability without requiring any specialized hardware. Its new POWER10 chip is said to be up to three times more energy-efficient than its predecessor in terms of power consumption. It features the new Memory Inception technology for improved cloud capacity and economics for memory-intensive workloads.
Furthermore, the new processor core architectures will provide 10x, 15x, and 20x faster AI inference for FP32, BFloat16, and INT8 calculations per socket respectively. It even comes embedded with Matrix Math Accelerator for faster AI processing.
On the security front, the IBM POWER10 processor will offer “hardware memory encryption for end-to-end security and faster cryptography performance.” Overall, this new IBM processor offers up to 20 times faster performance than the last-gen processor from IBM.