Chipmaker Intel Corp is about to revolutionise computers, laptops and servers.
The experimental 48-core Intel processor — or single-chip cloud computer (SCC) — that it unveiled in India on Wednesday has 10 to 20 times more processing power than its current most popular Intel Core processors.
SCC, however, is still a prototype that is being used by researchers and will evolve into a commercial product only after several tweaks on feedbacks from users. It has been made available to a dozen software researchers such as Microsoft, ETH Zurich and academic institutes in the West.
Justin Rattner, chief technology officer at Intel, said the SCC would be placed in the market by 2014-15.
“We have successfully built the research prototype and few years hence, we will see products in the market,” he said. Currently, Intel has four-core Quad processors
in the consumer device space and six-core processors for servers.
The long-term research goal of the new chip is to add scaling features to future computers that would enable new software applications and human-machine interface.
Intel is looking at partnering with industry and academia by sharing the chips with them for hands-on research in developing new software applications and programming models.
The new chip can take computing capability to the next level. For example, future laptops with very high processing capability can even have vision in the same way as humans can see objects and motion.
The statement issued by Intel said it can make possible interacting with computers for a virtual dance lesson or online shopping that uses a laptop’s 3D camera and display to show you a mirror of yourself wearing clothes that you are interested in.
Intel began working on the tera scale computing research programme two years ago and developed the 80-core Polaris with 65 nanometre process technology. However, it had limited programming capabilities and consumed a lot of power.
Vasantha Erraguntla, senior engineering manager, Intel Labs, said two years down the line, the product has been fixed by making it fully programmable and more power efficient; that too, by using 45 nanometre technology.
“The second generation 48-core chip — SCC — has half the number of cores of its earlier generation chip, 1.3 billion transistors and dynamic voltage scaling that has made it conducive for programming research and power efficient,” she said.
Erraguntla said Intel is now looking at using 32 nanometre technology to come out with the third generation SCC. She said, like the previous versions, it would be co-created by Intel Labs teams at Bangalore (India), Braunschweig (Germany) and Hillsboro (US).
Close to 15 people from Intel’s Bangalore lab were involved in the development of the 48-core SCC. They worked on its circuit and physical design, memory controller logic and mesh interconnect network.
Wednesday’s was the second big announcement by intel in India.
On Tuesday, the chipmaker confirmed that its first upgrade to the low-cost Atom chip would be commercially available from January.
While the company declined to confirm the launch date of the replacement, speculation has been rife that it would launch the new chip at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 11.
The new chip will integrate graphics and memory controllers onto the main processor die, reducing power consumption, heat emission and chip-manufacturing costs.
That means laptops will consume less power and yet be have a longer battery-life.
According to estimates, the current mainstream Atom processor and associated chips
consume around 9 watts of power, while the new design is likely to reduce it to 4-5 watts.
However, according to indications, consumers looking for a huge upgrade in processor power may be in for a disappointment as changes in the new chip are likely to be focused more on cutting power usage and reducing manufacturing costs.
Artificial intelligence
Future laptops with very high processing capability can have vision the same way as humans do.
Intel said it can make possible interacting with computers for a virtual dance lesson or online shopping.
Close to 15 people from Intel’s Bangalore lab were involved in the development of the SCC.
Justin Rattner, CTO (pictured), said the SCC would be in the market by 2014-15.
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