IBM has announced a 5.2GHz four-core 45nm processor with 1.4 billion transistors, claiming it to be the world's fastest microprocessor.
Dubbed z196, the 512mm2 chip includes embedded DRAM caches and is being made on 300mm SOI wafers in New York state.
It is destined for IBM new zEnterprise mainframe computers which are the result of a $1.5 billion research and development programme.
"From a performance standpoint, the zEnterprise System is the most powerful commercial IBM system ever. The core zEnterprise 196 server in the system contains 96 of the world's fastest microprocessors, capable of executing more than 50 billion instructions per second," said the firm. "It offers 60% more capacity than its predecessor, the System z10, and uses about the same amount of electricity."
With associated software changes, IBM is claiming up to a 60% improvement in data intensive and Java workloads from its machine.
z196 was designed by IBM engineers in New York, with "major contributions from IBM labs in Texas, Germany, Israel and India", said the firm.