IBM Announces the (long rumored) PowerPC 970MP

Japenese sites are reporting on the "Power Everywhere Forum 2005" conference which takes place today in Japan. IBM's presentation provides official details on the PowerPC 970MP processor which has been long rumored. The specs appear to include (presentation slide):

970MP
Dual core
1.4-2.5GHz
Each core has 1MB L2 cache
One core can be swiched off for low power mode

Also low power 970FX processors were described:

1.2GHz at 13W
1.4GHz at 13W
1.6GHz at 16W

An official press release can be found (Japanese).

970MP based PowerMacs have been expected for later this year. Despite Apple's recent announcement for plans to switch to Intel based Macs, at least one or two more PowerPC based PowerMacs are due before the switch.