Manufacturing, chip design expertise driving innovation and integration, historic change to computers

INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Intel Corp. executives said Moore's Law, driven by Intel's advances in 32 and 22 nanometer (nm)-manufacturing technologies, is leading to a broader and faster pace of "innovation and integration."

Future Intel Atom, Core and Xeon processors and System on Chip (SoC) products will make computers smaller, smarter, more capable and easier to use. For example, among a number of other innovations on tap, Intel will integrate graphics into some of its future chip products for the first time ever.

"Over the past 40 years, the opportunities enabled by Moore's Law have gone beyond just impressive performance increases," said Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group.

"The rapidly increasing number of transistors and processor instructions we add have made possible the integration of more and more capabilities and features within our processors. This has driven an incredible amount of innovation throughout the industry, with the real winners being the consumers, gamers and businesses which buy these Intel-based computers."

Next generation processors – Westmere and Sandy Bridge
In his Intel Developer Forum keynote, Maloney demonstrated a Westmere-based PC that showed a marked increase in responsiveness on simple, everyday tasks such as Web-surfing with multiple windows open.

Moreover, Westmere is Intel's first 32nm processor, and historic in that it is the first-ever Intel processor to integrate graphics die right into the processor's package. As well as supporting Intel Turbo Boost technology and Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, Westmere adds new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) instructions for faster encryption and decryption. Westmere in on track with wafers already moving through factory floors for planned fourth-quarter revenue production.

After Westmere, Intel's chip integration will continue with 32nm processors codenamed "Sandy Bridge." Sandy Bridge features Intel's sixth-generation graphics cores on the same die or silicon real estate as the processor core, and will include acceleration for floating point, video, and processor intensive software most often found in media applications. Maloney showed a Sandy Bridge-based system running a range of video and 3-D software to demonstrate the health of a far-future product line at its early stage.

Maloney demonstrated early silicon based on the "Larrabee" architecture, the codename for a family of future graphics-centric co-processors. He also confirmed that key developers have received development systems.

With the first product due next year, Larrabee takes the programmability of Intel Architecture and dramatically extends its parallel processing capabilities. This flexible programmability and the ability to take advantage of available developers, software and design tools give programmers the freedom to realize the benefits of fully programmable rendering and thus easily implement a variety of 3-D graphics pipelines such as rasterization, volumetric rendering or ray tracing.

Combined, PC users will experience stunning visual experiences on Intel-based PCs that incorporate this product. Maloney went on to demonstrate a real-time ray-traced version of the popular game "Quake Wars: Enemy Territory" running on Larrabee and Intel's next-generation enthusiast gaming processor, codenamed "Gulftown," which will carry the Core brand. While Larrabee silicon will initially appear in discrete graphics cards, the Larrabee architecture will eventually be integrated into the processor along with other technologies.

Maloney also provided attendees with a preview of Intel's next-generation intelligent server processor, codenamed Westmere-EP, and Intel's commitment to the high-end of the server market with its Xeon and Itanium processor families. Maloney discussed the unprecedented generational improvement that the forthcoming "Nehalem-EX" server processor will deliver, with performance improvements even greater than what the current Intel Xeon 5500 Series provided versus Intel's previous chip generation.

Maloney described the convergence of compute, networking and storage in the data center, sharing the company's vision of a converged datacenter IO fabric led by Intel 10GbE solutions. Intel also has a number of joint efforts with other industry leaders to deliver optimized platforms, systems, technologies and solutions to address the "hyper-scale" data center environments of the Internet and cloud services trend.

Maloney disclosed a new ultra-low-voltage Intel Xeon 3000 series processor featuring a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of only 30 watts. To complement the broad range of dense and power-optimized platform offerings, Intel also demonstrated publicly for the first time a single-socket "micro server" reference system which will help enable micro server innovation and future specification.

Maloney also described the just-disclosed "Jasper Forest" family of embedded processors as an example of extending the company's popular Nehalem microarchitecture to new markets. Available early next year, Jasper Forest is designed for purpose-built storage, communications, military and aerospace applications, and will offer a new level of integration to save precious board space and power for these dense environments.

Finally, Maloney announced a new PC management tool using Intel vPro technology. Keyboard Video Mouse (KVM) Remote Control enables IT personnel to investigate issues exactly as the user sees them, resulting in faster diagnosis, fewer desk side visits and added cost savings.

Intel technology and manufacturing –- almost 3 billion transistors on a chip
In his keynote address, Bob Baker, senior vice president and general manager, Technology and Manufacturing Group, underscored Intel's relentless pursuit of Moore's Law and its benefits to PC users, and provided more detail on the company's milestone in 22nm process technology. The company is the first to demonstrate working 22nm SRAM and logic test circuits. The 364 million bit SRAM array includes 0.092 square micron SRAM cells and 2.9 billion transistors. These are the smallest SRAM cells in working circuits reported to date.

The 22nm test chip marks the third generation of high-k metal gate technology which was first introduced 2 years ago on the 45nm generation. Intel remains the only company with that energy-efficient and high-performance feature in production, with more than 200 million 45nm CPUs shipped to date.

The manufacturing group has for the first time developed a unique, full-featured technology for SoC designs using Intel's 32nm technology, extending the world-class CPU process into new SoC markets. Designers will be able to choose between extremely high performance with the CPU process or extremely low power consumption, which would be needed for an SoC to extend the battery life of mobile phones and other products.

CPU update: Xeons and AMD Opterons are drivers for cost savings

Shortages take a vacation
USA: According to Converge Market Insights, in the past, the summer months have brought not only warm weather, but shortages in the CPU market. And July has always been a busy month in the spot market.

Last year, the big Intel end-of-life desktop shortage rolled in around June and kept the market busy until the pre-Christmas season. From the Pentium 4 630s to the 925, and the E6550 to the E8400, desktop parts arriving or leaving the market drive market volume demand.

This year, there are no hiccups to report in the Intel supply chain. The E8400 is still being supported though Q4, and there’s barely a shortage whisper on other desktop parts.

It appears that Intel has confronted the trend for the time being. Currently, we’re watching the E7400-500 and E5200-300 model switch for possible signs of a shortage.

Xeons drive reductions
Xeons and AMD Opterons are the current drivers this summer for cost-saving opportunities. This is the direct result of relatively higher pricing, a long shelf life allowing excess pockets to build and many price discrepancies across regions.

The spot market is abundant, with many cost-saving opportunities in server chips, which is an unexpected situation given stalling consumer demand.

Intel inside nearly 80pc of world’s fastest supercomputers

NEW DELHI, INDIA: More supercomputers than ever are using Intel Corporation processors, according to the latest TOP500 list. The high performance computing (HPC) community is especially enthusiastic about the Intel Xeon 5500 processor series. Launched only three months ago, these chips are already driving the research and analytical capabilities of 33 systems on the list.

The 33rd edition of the TOP500 list shows that 399 of the world’s top 500 systems, including two in the top 10, now have Intel inside. Systems using Intel Xeon quad-core processors feature prominently in the list, holding 340 spots. Using reinvented high-k metal gate transistors, Intel’s previous-generation quad-core 45nm Intel Xeon processor 5400 series is used in 263 systems.

Intel-based super computing platforms are playing a pivotal role in a number of research areas, from improving the safety of space exploration to forecasting global climate conditions. More “mainstream” industries, such as financial services and health care, are also using Intel-based systems to achieve faster, more accurate results, to speed the pace of innovation and improve competitive advantage.

In addition to hardware, Intel delivers software tools and technologies to maximize the value of HPC systems with Intel inside. Intel Cluster Ready architecture shortens the time to productivity of clustered systems while increasing software compatibility. Intel Cluster Tools, including compilers, libraries, and message-passing software, maximize the performance of the majority of TOP500 systems with Intel inside.

“High performance computing has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of Intel’s server business, and Intel is committed to continue to push the boundaries of the world’s highest end supercomputers harder than ever before,” said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Server Platforms Group.

“The new Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series extends the world-record performance and energy efficiency the TOP500 supercomputers demand, and we are delighted to see once again that more supercomputers than ever before are embracing the Intel Xeon processor as a result.”

New Intel compilers, libraries, cluster toolkits available
Intel is now shipping Intel Compiler Professional Editions 11.1 for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. New features include elements of the recently released Intel Parallel Studio, product support for Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) and updates for integration with Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse and Xcode.

The update also incorporates enhancements to the Intel Fortran and C++ compilers, Intel Math Kernel Library and Intel Integrated Performance Primitives. The Intel Cluster Toolkits include an updated Intel MPI library.

Intel previews Xeon 'Nehalem-EX' processor

SANTA CLARA, USA: Intel Corp. today previewed a new Intel Xeon processor codenamed "Nehalem-EX." The processor will be at the heart of the next generation of intelligent and expandable high-end Intel server platforms, which will deliver a number of new technical advancements and boost enterprise computing performance.

In production later this year, the Nehalem-EX processor will feature up to eight cores inside a single chip supporting 16 threads and 24Mb of cache. Its performance increase will be dramatic, posting the highest-ever jump from a previous generation processor.1

Nehalem-EX will add new reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features traditionally found in the company's Intel Itanium processor family, such as Machine Check Architecture (MCA) Recovery. Together with new levels of performance, both high-end processors should speed the move away from more expensive, proprietary RISC-processor based systems.

Ideal for server consolidation, virtualized applications, data demanding enterprise applications and technical computing environments, Nehalem-EX will offer up to nine times the memory bandwidth1 of the previous-generation Intel Xeon 7400 platform. Nehalem-EX will also double the memory capacity with up to 16 memory slots per processor socket, and offer four high-bandwidth QuickPath Interconnect links.

Nehalem-EX will provide tremendous scalability, from large-memory two-socket systems through eight-socket systems capable of processing 128 threads simultaneously without the need for third-party chips to "glue" the platform together. Additional scalability options including greater sockets counts will be possible with third-party solutions.

Intel delivers the most complete server portfolio: The Xeon 5500 series delivers leading performance, energy efficiency and flexibility for infrastructure applications. ++Nehalem-EX will greatly improve on today's Intel Xeon 7400 scalable performance, flexibility and advanced RAS features for data demanding enterprise applications and server consolidation. Itanium delivers the highest scalability and most advanced RAS features for the most demanding environments.

Nehalem-EX advantage
* Intel Nehalem Architecture built on Intel's unique 45nm high-k metal gate technology process.
* Up to eight cores per processor.
* Up to 16 threads per processor with Intel Hyper-threading.
* Scalability up to eight sockets via Quick Path Interconnects and greater with third-party node controllers.
* QuickPath Architecture with four high-bandwidth links.
* 24MB of shared cache.
* Integrated memory controllers.
* Intel Turbo Boost Technology.
* Intel scalable memory buffer and scalable memory interconnects.
* Up to 9x the memory bandwidth of previous generation.
* Support for up to 16 memory slots per processor socket.
* Advanced RAS capabilities including MCA Recovery.
* 2.3 billion transistors.

With new RAS capabilities for high-end enterprises, Nehalem-EX can accelerate IT adoption of Intel-based platforms over RISC-based platforms by delivering a lower total cost of ownership, higher performance, lower electricity bills and the ability to standardize on a flexible IT environment.

The Intel Itanium processor delivers mainframe-class reliability for mission-critical workloads and enables the greatest scalability, especially for highly threaded workloads. Itanium offers greater than eight-socket system configurations and is ideal for applications that access the largest memory pools.

Nehalem-EX is scheduled for production in the second half of 2009.