[2] The processor was developed over a three-year time span by IBM engineers from Poughkeepsie, New York; Austin, Texas; and Böblingen, Germany at a cost of US$1.5 billion.
[3] Manufactured at IBM's Fishkill, New York fabrication plant, the processor began shipping on September 10, 2010.
[4] The chip measures 512.3 mm2 and consists of 1.4 billion transistors fabricated in IBM's 45 nm CMOS silicon on insulator fabrication process, supporting speeds of 5.2 GHz:[1] at the time, the highest clock speed CPU ever produced for commercial sale.
The z196 chip can decode three instructions and execute five operations in a single clock cycle.
The z196 also includes a GX bus controller for accessing host channel adapters and peripherals.