2 cores, 4 cores, 16 cores … how about 80 cores to introduce a revolution in computing

By Marcus Cake • February 13, 2007

There have been concerns that Moore’s law may not continue. Recent innovations have solved problems in manufacturing, power consumption and heat generation (See MooreÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s law likely to continue and power entrepreneurial opportunities in a service oriented world ). It appears that a further innovation may not only see that Moore’s law continues but introduce a revolution in computing. In simple terms, it is the ability to put 80 cores on a single chip.

One small chip for a PC, One Giant leap for computing, Technewsworld.com, 12th February 2007

Extract:

Intel revealed Monday an experimental 80-core microchip that the company says will give it valuable insights in design methodologies and energy management. The technology likely won’t be ready for consumer products for several years, but when it is, it could mandate an entirely new approach to designing software.
Previously, Intel concentrated on making microprocessors that ran faster and faster, Martin Reynolds, a Gartner Research fellow, told TechNewsWorld. This strategy more or less followed Moore’s Law, which states that the number of transistors on a chip will double every 18 to 24 months with each subsequent generation. Intel, however, “ran into a wall where faster and faster became too hot, consuming too much power,” Reynolds said.
Intel found that by making two slower — but not much slower — processors, they consume much less power but do almost twice as much work as a single faster chip, according to Reynolds. Intel’s two-core Core Duo and Core 2 Duo chips and Core 2 Quad four-core chips take advantage of that technology.
“We have a natural progression coming,” Reynolds said. “We’ve got two-core and four-core, now. And we’ve got eight- and sixteen-core coming.”
Intel is attempting to demonstrate that it can take this technology to far greater numbers than was previously thought possible, Reynolds continued. “They are trying to figure out what they have to do to build an 80-core chip, one with 80 processors on it. “
The second challenge for Intel is how to create an infrastructure through which the 80 processors can communicate, transfer information and perform. Here, Intel has developed a mesh-like “network-on-a-chip” architecture that allows high-bandwidth communication between the cores, the company said.
Many core chips will probably make it into PCs during the middle or latter part of the next decade, Enderle predicted. When they do, it will mean a “rather massive change out of existing hardware” since the products based on this will be more flexible and less expensive for a given level of work. That also means software makers will have to design totally new products.
If software makers are not careful, they could be steamrolled by multi-core technology, Gartner’s Reynolds added. He predicted that new software companies will emerge who have a new approach to the problem, and they will displace existing manufacturers.