IBM Telum
| Company type | Microprocessor |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | 2019 |
| Products | Telum microprocessor |
| Parent | IBM |
Telum represents an IBM microprocessor developed specifically for the IBM z16 series of mainframe systems. Revealed at the 2021 Hot Chips event, it marks IBM's inaugural processor to embed on-chip acceleration tailored for artificial intelligence inference within transactional processes.
Description
This processor incorporates 8 cores featuring a highly advanced superscalar out-of-order execution pipeline, operating at frequencies exceeding 5 GHz. It is engineered to handle diverse enterprise workloads, including financial services, security-critical tasks, and applications demanding exceptional dependability. Each core is equipped with 32 MB of L2 cache, and the architecture supports scaling up to 32 interconnected Telum processors. A distinctive cache architecture enables the L2 cache of one core to function as virtual L3 and L4 caches for other cores, thereby boosting overall system efficiency. Cooling solutions offered include both air and water options; water cooling becomes essential when multiple Telum processors are deployed within a single IBM compute drawer. Instead of lowering clock speeds to address thermal limitations, Telum employs sleep state instructions to regulate temperature.
The Telum processor introduces a novel 16-bit floating-point format called NNP-Data-Type-1 along with several new instructions. Its Neural Network Processing Assists (NNPA) instruction set is designed to accelerate tensor operations vital for neural network computations.