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Intel Plans to Overhaul Chip Architecture
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Intel is planning to announce an entirely new chip architecture later this month at the company's developer forum, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company isn't discussing details yet, but it's expected that Paul Otellini will discuss a 'technology foundation designed from scratch to improve energy efficiency and make it easier to add more than two processors.'"
It'll also likely contain whatever TPM provisions that they've decided to spring on consumers, under the guise of having great new "features" and "advantages." They're always eager to talk about what you -can- do with their hardware, but relatively silent on what they're going to make sure you -can't- do.
Related to the Apple switch? Anyone?
Those who can, do.
Those who cannot, teach.
Those who think they can but cannot, manage.
Who wants to bet that the announcement includes a integrated memory controller? I wouldn't be suprised if they just licenced Opteron technology from AMD; it would be alot cheaper than developing their own. Although, they could always just outright steal it.
Bugs are just features that have been fixed.
TFA claims the new chips will be in PCs in 18 months - given the incredibly long design times of modern processors, that means they've probably been working on it for at least a couple years.
My server
As we all know, the Pentium 4 is a pretty goofy, shlocky design. The Pentium M is good, but it's essentially a Pentium Pro. That's 10 years old.
Intle NEEDS to prove that they can still make a good x86 chip from "scratch".
Intel announced some fud about EPIC, and except for fujitsu who kept Sparc alive despite Sun's layoffs this FUD wiped out the entire market.
Methinks they saw the power of this approach and if the last round killed 4 leading nplayers, this round will kill off the remaining 2 (IBM & AMD).
Performance per watt? Notice now Intel is singing the exact same tune that Apple is? I'm not saying that it's being made specifically for Apple, but clearly Steve Jobs looked at the roadmap and, since Intel wants something new, saw a common goal that he could pursue.
One has to wonder if Apple had any 'insight' to these plans when they signed the deal.
Actually, it is pretty likely that Apple was given a full roadmap and a few engineers to explain the whole thing while in in discussions and under NDA. The real questions are did this have anything to do with Apple's decision, is this in response to the deal with Apple, or is this just coincidental.
The article seems to pretend that the Israeli design teams low power Pentium M doesn't exist. It says the last major design change was the Pentium 4 (which was prior to the Pentium M), and doesn't mention that current and (already announced) future Pentium M based designs match the description given.
Given that Apple's porting (so far as we know) has all been focused on the x86 series, one would assume any new architecture designed for Apple would be compatible. Otherwise, Apple would have to throw away all the porting work they've done so far and/or create three-way fat binaries instead of two-way. Unless the benefits are staggering, it doesn't make sense for them to switch to yet another design at this point.
We use the Car analogy because everyone will understand it.
Cars have been around for so long today that it is taken as ubiquitous, and common knowledge. So when we talk about DDR effectively doubling the bus bandwidth, people go "Oh, like the difference between a 2 lane highway and a 4 lane".
The fact is, computers, like cars, are modularly constructed, and both devices follow a strict set of rules. This makes for direct analogies from one part to the next simpler (engine vs CPU for example).
Lastly, we use the computer/car relationship because it works!
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
Though they may not want to admit it, Intel knows they've lost the 64-bit format war for desktops at least.
So probably what the are working on is a next gen x86 architecture. Those don't come out too often, usually the design one and just modify it for a number of years. It sounds like they are going to start using modifiations on their Pentium M for desktops, which is cool since it is efficient both thermally and in terms of what it does per clock, but there's a limited life to it and they know it. The Pentium M is something of a throwback to the P3, which itself is really based on the Ppro design.
So my guess is Intel figures it's time to unviel a new design for a core, but on x86 architecture.
Considering that no one could make a 64-bit processor as good as the DEC Alpha, and that HP basically GAVE Intel the plans for the Alpha, I believe this new architecture is going to be heavily based on the best 64-bit processor evar: DEC Alpha. It's not so much new as it is just continued development of an already existing superior technology.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Ten YEARS ago HP told us that Risc is going away and that EPIC/Itanium is the way of the future. Remember, their Intel/EPIC announcement happened back in 1993.
My bet is that HP continues being a Windtel/x86 leader and that RISC (thanks to Cell and Niagra) move on with out them.
(oh, you said "Risk" is going away, not Risc. Well, that's more likely now that Carley's gone)
Mod parent up as insightful!
A lot of intel's planned 'improvements' closely mirror the major advantages of PowerPC architecture. Intel has clearly been influenced by Apple or is trying to push IBM out of the high-end market.
Either way, I welcome some good innovation from Intel. I was far from being impressed with the Pentium 4 (with the exception of the M). Over the past 4 or 5 years, AMD has been the clear winner in terms of cost, technology, innovation, and speed. Intel has been the winner on the business side of things. Funny how it works, eh?
I wonder what AMD's answer to this will be?
(PS: Doesn't the way they're describing this make it sound like it's gonna be a super-powerful RISC chip with x86 emulation?)
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
The 64bit format war hasn't even started yet. And besides its hard to call it a war when intel doesn't even have a 64 bit chip out. When we see 50%+ penetration of 64bit chips on the desktop then you can start to say who is the winner.
Yes, that's the first thing I thought of. I've read that dual-core and 64-bit versions of the Pentium M with improved FPU performance have been in the works. The key fact here is that Intel has NEVER announced a desktop version of the Pentium M, even though the rumor mill has made the phasing out of the P4 a certainty. So, TECHNICALLY, it's a new CPU architecture.
These will probably be announced as desktop-only chips, and should be available within a year. 18 months...no way Intel will wait that long.
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And occasionally whores for Karma.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....