Several chip makers are expected to talk up current and upcoming processor designs at this year’s International Solid State Circuits Conferences, but it’s Intel’s 48-core chip that might steal the show.
Not a whole lot is known about this mega-chip just yet, other than it’s an experimental 48-core processor called the Single-Chip Cloud Computer (SCCC). We also know that each core is a full x86 implementation that can run its own OS instance, but other than that, we’ll have to wait for more details.
AMD will also be on hand to discuss an upcoming 32nm mobile processor, which could possibly end up being the company’s first "Fusion" processor, currently codenamed Llano. Or it could be AMD’s Bobcart architecture revealed last last year. Either way, AMD says the chip it plans to show off will be a 32nm implementation of an AMD x86-64 core with more than 35 million transistors (not counting L2 cache). It will run at frequencies above 3GHz and sport several power improvements.
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Image Credit: Intel
Intel, who at some point in the not-too-distant future will show socket 1366 owners some love with a 6-core processor, just got through demonstrating a 48-core processor it hopes will usher in a new era of computing with PCs powerful enough to emulate human traits. Did we really say 48 cores? Excuse us while we change our underpants.
Before you soil yours as well, it’s important to understand that the cores aren’t barn burners likes today’s desktop Core i7 chips are. Instead, the 1.3 billion transistor processor, called Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) is the successor generation to the 80-core "Polaris" processor and has more in common with a low end Atom part than a desktop Nehalem.
Unlike Polaris, however, Intel’s 48-core chip can run the same standard software as Intel’s x86 CPUs. And while each core doesn’t pack a punch by itself, combining 48 of them makes it a pretty powerful chip.
"The machine will be capable of understanding the world around them much as humans do," Justin Rattner, Intel CTO, said at a press event. "They will see and hear and probably speak and do a number of other things that resemble human-like capabilities, and will demand as a result very (powerful) computing capability."
This isn’t something you’ll see on the desktop, but for you Folding fanatics, could you imagine pairing this chip with an upcoming Fermi graphics card or three? Oops, there goes another pair of briefs.
Image Credit: Intel
