The 400-MHz PPC 750 with copper interconnects delivers about 17.6 SPECint performance, compared with about 14 SPECint performance for the 300-MHz version of the 750, which uses aluminum interconnects, said a spokesman for IBM Microelectronics.

The 400-MHz 750, as well as the PowerPC 740 aimed at the embedded market, are built on a 0.22-micron (drawn) process. IBM has started to work with foundry customers on designs that will use a 0.18-micron process, which will reach mass production early in 2000.

The 750 for the desktop market comes in a 360-pin ceramic BGA package and taps an on-chip cache . The 740 chip includes the SRAM on the die, but the part's 255-pin package does not support it.

IBM researchers, in describing the 400-MHz 750 at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference last February, said the use of copper alone accounted for about 12 percent of the chip's speed improvement. Lower voltages, the use of a 0.22-micron version of the company's quarter-micron process, and design tweaks also added to the overall performance gain.

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