Trying to give ARM a bit more competition, Big Blue has stepped up to claim that it has the highest performance, highest throughput processor for system-on-chip (SoC) products. Made in collaboration with LSI, the PowerPC 476FP processor core works at frequencies of over 1.6 GHz and has over two times the performance of IBM's most advanced embedded core currently available.

The PowerPC 476FP dissipates 1.6W when manufactured in IBM's 45nm SOI technology and can be paired up with an LSI-designed configurable level 2 (L2) memory cache, the sizes available being of 256KB, 512KB and 1MB.

"We are pleased to announce this new embedded PowerPC processor," said Richard Busch, IBM director of ASIC products. "This high-performance, power efficient, compact processor core allows customers to meet the needs of today's applications, while preserving legacy code. Our collaboration with LSI brings together IBM's expertise in processor development with LSI's experience in networking and storage architectures, optimizing this core to address today's high-speed embedded requirements."

According to IBM, the PowerPC 476FP hardcore will be ready to support designs as of next month and will enter production in Q4 2010. A synthesizable version is also expected in 4Q 2010.