IBM Telum

Last updated
Telum
General information
Launched2021
Designed by IBM
Common manufacturer(s)
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate 5.2 GHz
Cache
L2 cache32 MB
per core
Architecture and classification
Technology node 7 nm
Instruction set z/Architecture
Physical specifications
Cores
  • 8
History
Predecessor(s) z15

Telum is a microprocessor made by IBM for the IBM z16 series mainframe computers. [2] [3] The processor was announced at the Hot Chips 2021 conference on 23 August 2021. [2] Telum is IBM's first processor that contains on-chip acceleration for artificial intelligence inferencing while a transaction is taking place. [4] [5]

Contents

Description

The chip contains 8 processor cores with a deep superscalar out-of-order pipeline, running with more than 5 GHz clock frequency which is optimized for the demands of heterogenous enterprise class workloads (e.g: Finance, Security sensitive applications, Applications requiring extreme reliability). The cache and chip-interconnection infrastructure provides 32 MB cache per core and can scale to 32 Telum chips. [6] [3] [7] The cache design has been described as "revolutionary" in 2021, [6] by creating a system where the L2 cache of one core can be used as virtual L3 and L4 caches for another core. [3] [1] The Telum processor can either be water cooled or air cooled, but water cooling is required for running more than a few Telum processors in a single IBM compute drawer. [8] [9] Unlike other processors, the IBM Telum does not thermal throttle by reducing clock speed; instead it inserts sleep state instructions. [8] [9]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Hudson, Andrew (24 July 2023). "The IBM mainframe: How it runs and why it survives". Ars Technica . Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  2. 1 2 Moorhead, Patrick (23 August 2021). "IBM Telum- A New Chapter In Vertically Integrated Chip Technology". Forbes . Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Johnson, Dexter (29 April 2022). "IBM's New Telum Chip Reboots the Mainframe". IEEE Spectrum . Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  4. Combs, Veronica (24 August 2021). "IBM's new Telum Processor is the company's first with an on-chip AI accelerator". TechRepublic . Archived from the original on 2023-03-22. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  5. Sperling, Ed (26 August 2021). "New Approaches For Processor Architectures". Semiconductor Engineering. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  6. 1 2 Cutress, Ian (2 September 2021). "Did IBM Just Preview The Future of Caches?". Anandtech . Retrieved 5 May 2022.
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  8. 1 2 https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg248950.pdf
  9. 1 2 Why Do Mainframes Still Exist? What's Inside One? 40TB, 200+ Cores, AI, and more! , retrieved 2024-01-11