Power7看來血緣比較接近Power6

POWER7's new instruction set "VSX"

http://sourceware.org/ml/binutils/2008-08/msg00016.html
http://sourceware.org/ml/gdb-patches/2008-07/msg00452.html

POWER7 will support new SIMD ISA "VSX" (Vector-Scalar instructions).

VSX uses 128-bit x 64 registers and includes SIMD DP FP math. Altivec VRs and PPC FPRs are assigned to VSX registers (VSR). Furthermore, PPC fp instructions are extended to support 64 FPRs (PPC32L and PPC64L).

The specification of VSX indicates some details of POWER7 architecture.

- POWER7 will be homogeneous design. "Workload Accelerators" will be additional ALUs, like Altivec and DFP units in POWER6.

- No rename registers and OoOE. In-order core needs more registers to avoid hazards.

- POWER7 pipeline will be the same or longer than POWER6. Long pipeline needs more registers.

看來Out Of Order真的Out Of Date了...