Intel Demos Single Chip with 48 Cores

[topgear]

Intel's latest prototype could eventually see what you're doing while dancing in front of the monitor.

Intel announced that company researchers demonstrated an experimental, 48-core processor--dubbed the "single-chip cloud computer"--that will supposedly pave the way for future generations of processors. According to the company, the "concept chip" is aimed at scaling on-chip performance, communication, and power consumption. The new prototype also offers 10 to 20 times the processing engines found in today's Intel Core processors.

Despite its many cores, Intel says that the futuristic prototype chip will consume the same amount of energy as two standard household light bulbs thanks to newly invented power management techniques. Even more, Intel claims that the processor could eventually become sophisticated enough to let PCs use "vision" to interact with people.

"Imagine, for example, someday interacting with a computer for a virtual dance lesson or on-line shopping that uses a future laptop's 3-D camera and display to show you a "mirror" of yourself wearing the clothes you are interested in," the company said. "Twirl and turn and watch how the fabric drapes and how the color complements your skin tone. This kind of interaction could eliminate the need of keyboards, remote controls or joysticks for gaming. Some researchers believe computers may even be able to read brain waves, so simply thinking about a command, such as dictating words, would happen without speaking."

Intel also said that it deemed the prototype as the "single-chip cloud computer" because of its similarities with data centers organized in a group to create a "cloud" of computing. The prototype's 48 cores seemingly mimics the configuration of a cloud server system, however casts aside the physical distance and is reduced down to a piece of 45nm, high-k metal-gate silicon "about the size of a postage stamp."

To learn more about the prototype processor, head here.
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archi...202comp_sm.htm

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Int...-CPU,9193.html

[Indyan]

Tilera announced 100 core processors couple of months back. It seems like Gigahertz war is going to be replaced by the core wars.
http://techie-buzz.com/latest-news/t...processor.html

[ssk_the_gr8]

^^ it has been replaced by the core wars long time ago

[topgear]

I don't think Gigahertz war was ended but rather it converged with the core development.

That's why you will see many people like to run their quad core procs ( say a core i7 920 ) around 4 GHz and beyond

[RChandan]

Intel is going to rape AMD brutally. Currently the rape is a bit sober, since AMD has a fantastic stronghold within the mid and mid-high slabs of the market, but that's going to change eventually.

[topgear]

^^ But I think AMD will improve over time and protect it's virginity from the blue devil