Intel Shoots for 32 Cores By 2010

In four years time, chipmaker Intel hopes to push the mutli-core chip envelope to 32 cores. But based on documents provided by the proverbial “industry source” the age of the “dozens of cores” may be still some time away. Intel’s “Keifer,” its first project name for many-core processors, is estimated  to be rolled sometime around 2009/2010. What can the 32-core super chip do for you? Intel expects “Keifer” to be 15x faster its Xeon 5100 processors which zips in at 2 GHz clock speed.

This early Intel is already snooping around for possible competitive products on which it will base the performance requirements of its future multi-core. According to the documents, the company is gearing Keifer to go head to head with Sun’s “Niagara” architecture, which is currently available in the “Ultra Sparc T1” processor. Launched in 2005, the T1 is a 1.2 GHz 8-core processor with 3 MB L2 cache and capable of handling a total 32 threads at a peak power of just 72 watts. Sun currently sells the T1 in the T1000 and T2000 server series from around $3500 to just under $30,000.

Via TG Daily

In four years time, chipmaker Intel hopes to push the mutli-core chip envelope to 32 cores. But based on documents provided by the proverbial “industry source” the age of the “dozens of cores” may be still some time away. Intel’s “Keifer,” its first project name for many-core processors, is estimated  to be rolled sometime around 2009/2010. What can the 32-core super chip do for you? Intel expects “Keifer” to be 15x faster its Xeon 5100 processors which zips in at 2 GHz clock speed.

This early Intel is already snooping around for possible competitive products on which it will base the performance requirements of its future multi-core. According to the documents, the company is gearing Keifer to go head to head with Sun’s “Niagara” architecture, which is currently available in the “Ultra Sparc T1” processor. Launched in 2005, the T1 is a 1.2 GHz 8-core processor with 3 MB L2 cache and capable of handling a total 32 threads at a peak power of just 72 watts. Sun currently sells the T1 in the T1000 and T2000 server series from around $3500 to just under $30,000.

Via TG Daily