(Left) Intel CTO Justin Rattner holding a wafer of Intel 48 core chips (Right) Intel's 48 core processor
Though quantum computing, carbon nanotube transistors and small supercomputers get all the hoopla now-a-days, Intel is working on projects with a more concrete and shorter time frame than those other futuristic projects. In their Barcelona labs, Intel is using a multi-core chip in a server to figure out how it could make good use of a 48-core chip in mobile devices in the next 5 to 10 years.
More processing power will always be welcome. Current projects see dual-core or quad-core processing chips, but a 48-core chip, with accommodating software, will change everything. Currently, these types of multi-core chips are used to model and solve complex engineering or mathematical problems like complex fluid mechanics or linear algebra. Now, it could be geared towards Angry Birds games and 4Square check-ins.
Intel researchers say one of the biggest hurdles will be effectively and efficiently using these chips. Instead of splitting a single core to do multiple things, a multi-core chip would run processes in parallel, between cores, saving both time and power usage. Most current software for apps and operating systems is not written to run in such a parallel way. Even 8-core chips rarely use software that uses of all of them. Regardless, Intel is certain that when the time comes, the software will be on par with the hardware to make full use of it.
A 48-core chip would unleash possibilities that current processors simply are not capable of like extreme multitasking, again, on your handheld. Seamlessly streaming HD video and encrypting email while running high power apps like object and speech recognition along with augmented reality will be a breeze for a 48-core chip, with cycles to spare. In fact, many possibilities are not even considered due to the way software is currently written. The Parallax Propeller chip, with its multicore parallel processing power, trieeed to show the virtues with mild success, now intel may make it mainstream. In other words, it may behoove you to start early down the path of parallel processing.
Integrating a 48-core chip into a smart phone will mean that your phone will likely become your personal computer. Wirelessly communicating with displays, keyboards, mice, surfaces and other peripherals will be done with pleasant ease when all those tasks are being split up between the 48 cores. Of course a broader network would be needed, but user devices, instead of servers, could do all of the main processing.
Intel stresses that these chips will come sooner than later, in that 5 to 10 year window, because of the market’s demand. Still, market demand is not everything, and there is still a lot of development needed especially on the software side. In the meantime, Nvidia’s Tegra 3 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4, five core and four core mobile chips respectively, will have to do.
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