Next PowerPC To Support Multiple OS's? - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Next PowerPC To Support Multiple OS's?

CNET News takes a look at IBM's PowerPC 970FX chip and the likely roadmap IBM plans to take the POWER line. From the article:

The next-generation chip will have technology that lets it run multiple operating systems simultaneously, said Karl Freund, vice president, IBM eServer pSeries. Doing so allows a computer to handle more jobs at the same time and to be used more efficiently.

With the next-generation PowerPC 970, IBM plans to run that hardware management console instead as software in a separate partition, he said. Freund declined to comment on when in 2005 the chip is scheduled to arrive but said it's "pretty late in the design cycle now." Apple plans to use it, he added.

He also wouldn't comment on another possible feature of the coming chip: dual processing cores. Sun and HP sell dual-core chips today; comparatively mainstream dual-core designs are coming from Intel and AMD in 2005. So it stands to reason IBM will adopt the idea in its own PowerPC 970 line.

A single-core version of the IBM 970FX chip is currently used in the Power Mac G5 line of desktop computers, as well as the iMac G5 line.

Related Roundups: iMac, Mac Pro
Related Forums: iMac, Mac Pro

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Related Apple News: Culture | Opinion | Entertainment | Iphone | Lifestyle