Multicore processors up to 45pc more powerful and faster for carrying video and 3D rendering for gaming and home entertainment are around the corner as Intel yesterday moved to woo the consumer electronics industry in a tour de force.
It said the new processors will make the internet, computers and home entertainment devices more responsive, friendlier and secure.
Pat Gelsinger, senior vice-present and general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group, provided performance indicators for Intel’s upcoming Penryn family of processors.
For desktop PCs, he said to expect increases of about 15pc for imaging-related applications; 25pc for 3D rendering; more than 40pc for gaming; and more than 40pc faster video encoding with Intel SSE4 optimised video encoders.
For high-performance computing and workstation systems, Gelsinger said to expect gains up to an estimated 45pc for bandwidth-intensive applications; and a 25pc increase for servers using Java.
Gelsinger said that Intel has begun planning products based on a highly parallel, IA-based programmable architecture codenamed “Larrabee”.
It will be easily programmable using many existing software tools and designed to scale to trillions of floating point operations per second (teraflops) of performance.
The Larrabee architecture will include enhancements to accelerate applications such as scientific computing, recognition, mining, synthesis, visualisation, financial analytics and health applications.
The company also has plans for Intel QuickAssist technology – a comprehensive initiative to optimise the use of accelerators in servers.
Gelsinger also unveiled Intel’s “Tolapai” plans, the first in what will be a family of enterprise-class “system-on-chip” (SoC) products that integrate several key system components into a single Intel architecture-based processor.
The 2008 Tolapai product is expected to reduce the chip sizes by up to 45pc and power consumption by approximately 20pc compared to a standard four-chip design.
Intel yesterday revealed its CE (Consumer Electronics) 2110 Media Processor, which is a complete system on a chip architecture with a 1GhZ core with powerful audio visual processing and graphics and I/O components on a single chip.
The chip will make it easier to deliver advanced revenue-generating services such as voice over IP, video phone, interactive gaming, enhanced karaoke and e-learning.
“The Internet is a powerful disruptive opportunity for the CE industry,” said William Leszinske, general manager of Intel’s Consumer Electronics Group.
“Intel’s work with the CE ecosystem to power new intelligent devices will help accelerate the availability of a new range of exciting internet-based information and services and video entertainment experiences for consumers throughout the home,” Leszinske said.
By John Kennedy
