IBM's POWER3 microprocessor was launched Monday with IBM claiming the chip "performs like eight chips in one".

POWER3 has been designed by the team that gave life to Deep Blue, the supercomputer that took on chess grand master Garry Kasparov last year and won.

The processor was introduced on IBM's new, high-performance RS/6000 43P Model 260 graphical workstation. The 64-bit POWER3 microprocessor is a RISC-based chip developed for IBM's UNIX workstations and servers.

According to IBM, the chip is unlike a typical PC microprocessor because it "features eight execution units fed by a 6.4 gigabyte per second memory subsystem". IBM states that this will allow POWER3 to "outperform competitors' processors running at two to three times the clock speed".

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