Desktops
Intel discussed its business client intentions and the results of a survey about what people were looking for, but there was nothing in it specific about desktop processors. So moving right along, we'll mention a couple of items from the mobility session that applied to desktops.
Desktop processors will transition to the Nehalem micro-architecture. Later this year or next we will see Lynnfield (4 cores, 8 threads) and Clarkdale (2 cores, 4 threads, integrated graphics) processors for desktops. Clarkdale will use the coming 32nm process from Intel but still be Nehelem micro-architecture CPUs.
Notebooks, Netbooks and other MIDS
These market sectors are served by Intel's Mobility Group. It sees new products coming, such as quad-core notebooks, hardware security, and more ultra thin and light, MacBook Air-type notebooks, which need physically smaller processors. These ultra-thins should provide the full PC experience, enabling you to use them to create videos and edit photos.
It wants ultra-thins to become mainstream and venture out from their expensive, high-end rarified niche.
Montevina is Intel's current mobile platform. It is the fifth-generation of the Centrino platform (moble chipset + mobile CPU + wireless interface) and is also known as Centrino 2. The CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo, codename Penryn, using 45nm process technology.
Next up is the Montevina Plus platform offering longer battery life, use in ultra-thins, better visual quality and improved wireless. The processor will be a higher speed one, running at 3.3GHz, and will also use less power, operating in a 10 watts or less thermal design power envelope. That, Intel says, reduces the need for a heat sink and cooling fans.
The system will automatically detect playback of 24fps recorded video and translate this to the screen's refresh rate to avoid playback artefacts.
As with desktops there will be a notebook processor transition to Nehalem's micro-architecture. Later this year or next we will see Clarksfield (4 cores, 8 threads on the 45nm process) and Arrandale (2 cores, 4 threads, integrated graphics, on a 32nm process) processors for notebooks. The Montevina Plus platform will include these new notebook processors, which will be 40 per cent smaller than equivalent desktop processors.
Next page: Netbooks
COMMENTS
Itanium taking share from IBM and Sun
Itanium fills a role at the head of the high-end server class, despite its detractors there is no better option for mission critical computing. Read more at: http://blog.itaniumsolutions.org/
@Mad Mike: Power 6+ & 7 will probably be screamers!
I guess I was wrong... The IBM Power6+ was not a screamer...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/28/ibm_shipped_power6_plus_already/comments/
Silently released, no significant performance boost.
RE: Projected Intel, IBM, AMD, and Oracle/SUN/Fujitsu processors
Matt Bryant says, "And the Nehalem and Barcelona cores are full-bodied cores with a real pipeline to keep those threads spinning"
But the cores are not always processing, waiting for memory accesses on cache misses.
Matt Bryant continues, "whereas the whole Sun design is a capitulation to the idea that you can't have all the threads going at once, because Sun couldn't design a bus or core powerful enough to"
Actually, Sun designed a core powerful enough to run an instruction for every clock cycle, not stalling. The difference is that when the Sun thread stalls, it does not stall the core, while with other processors, the core stalls.
The Sun design was brilliant, attacking the core not running 100% of the time, using a different strategy to keep it working. It was a very unique solution in the marketplace. It does not work well for all workloads, but it is superior for many workloads. (i.e. on web servers, a single socket T2 processor will handle encrypted traffic almost as well as a quad socket Intel machine!)
Matt Bryant suggests, "T3 will still have the same scale problems of all the Niagara lines"
A single socket octal core T2 performing slightly slower than a quad socket hex core Intel is not a bad scaling problem to have - especially when the T2 will scale to 4 sockets... and easily outrun 12 hex-core Intel sockets in encrypted middleware bus or web-server loads.
http://spec.org/cgi-bin/osgresults?conf=web2005&op=fetch&proj-COMPANY=256&proj-SYSTEM=256&proj-PEAK=256&proj-HTTPSW=256&proj-CORES=256&proj-CHIPS=256&critop-CHIPS=0&crit-CHIPS=1&proj-CORESCHP=256&proj-CPU=0&proj-CACHE1=0&proj-CACHE2=0&proj-CACHE3=0&proj-MEMORY=0&proj-NETNCTRL=0&proj-NETCTRL=0&proj-NNETS=0&proj-NETTYPE=0&proj-NETSPEED=0&proj-TIMEWAIT=0&proj-DSKCTRL=0&proj-DISK=0&proj-SCRIPTS=0&proj-WEBCACHE=0&proj-OS=0&proj-HWAVAIL=0&crit2-HWAVAIL=Jan&proj-OSAVAIL=0&crit2-OSAVAIL=Jan&proj-SWAVAIL=0&crit2-SWAVAIL=Jan&proj-LICENSE=0&proj-TESTER=0&proj-TESTDAT=0&crit2-TESTDAT=Jan&proj-PUBLISH=256&crit2-PUBLISH=Jan&proj-UPDATE=0&crit2-UPDATE=Jan&dups=0&duplist=COMPANY&duplist=SYSTEM&duplist=CORES&duplist=CHIPS&duplist=CORESCHP&duplist=CPU&duplist=CACHE1&duplist=CACHE2&duplist=CACHE3&duplist=NETTYPE&dupkey=PUBLISH&latest=Dec-9999&sort1=PEAK&sdir1=-1&sort2=SYSTEM&sdir2=1&sort3=CORESCHP&sdir3=-1&format=tab
Matt Bryant predicts, "SPARC... I predict Larry will cut them lose without a second thought."
So far, both Oracle & SUN indicate that SPARC is staying around... Larry seems to disagree with you on his first thought since merger announcement.
If RocK is significantly late (again) and T3 is late (CoolThreads have been on-time or early since 2005) - I agree this may be a reasonable prediction. Perhaps Larry's second thought will be align with your prediction under these conditions.
I guess, we will see!!!
@Mad Mike: Power 6+ & 7 will probably be screamers!
Mad Mike says, "Power 6+ is already out, at least according to IBM. Power 7 is on target and will be released on time. It's also not a 16 core design."
I have not been able to find any information, outside of speculation on Power6+ or Power7.
Register suggests the Power6+ is not out, as of "23rd April 2009".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/23/ibm_power6_plus/
Wikipedia says there are 2 chips per module with 8 cores per chip - which looks like a total of 16 cores per socket, assuming 2 chips in a single multi-chip module per socket. Wikipedia is a little unclear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER7
I look forward to the processor releases, I am sure they will all be screamers!!!
RE: Projected Intel, IBM, AMD, and Oracle/SUN/Fujitsu processors
One problem with old Novatose's marketeering - did he call Larry first to get his approval? Fact is, all the "coming" Sun chips mentioned are waiting on Axeman Larry to decide whether Oracle want them or not, and the evidence so far is not. First off, Oracle haven't committed to ANY current Sun hardware, let alone future products. Wonder what the two-week delay was in Sun announcing the Nehalem kit? It wasn't just Sun being slower to market than the other vendors (as they usually are), it was probably because Sun had to ask Oracle for permission to launch the kit. Until Larry stands up and says Rock and T3 are go they are just vapourware, and even less convincing vapourware than when the SPARC fanclub was running Sun.
And even if they do get released, Intel and AMD are hardly going to be quaking in their boots. T3 will still have the same scale problems of all the Niagara lines - Xeon and even the old Barcelona Opteron already out-scales and out-perfroms it. And the Nehalem and Barcelona cores are full-bodied cores with a real pipeline to keep those threads spinning, whereas the whole Sun design is a capitulation to the idea that you can't have all the threads going at once, because Sun couldn't design a bus or core powerful enough to. All T1 and T2 did was cannibalise the existing low-end SPARC base, and even then Sun and FSC finally had to produce a single-SPARC64 M-series server (the M3000) as their customers kept screaming at them that Niagara just didn't do what they wanted. And the final nail in T3's coffin - even if Oracle drop the stupid Sun insistance of pitching Slowaris as the OS of choice instead of Linux, it still can't run Windows, which means it can't compete with the cheaper, more flexible and faster x64 options which can Linux, Windows or even Slowaris x86. Niagara's little webserving niche is not going to be enough to keep T3 alive in Oracle.
Rock? Way too little and far too late, even if they can fix the bugs. Going on the info Sun have released, Rock will be out-performed by the Power5 and old Madison Itanium2 cores it was originally supposed to go up against. Power6 and the latest Montecito Itanium2 cores will comfortably out-perform it, and then there are Power7 and Tukwila Itaniums waiting in the wings. 32-thread Power7 pricing is anyone's guess but likely to be keenly driven as IBM and hp scrap over who gets to migrate all those Sun accounts McNeedy and Ponytail have left in the lurch. Tukzilla-based Integrity servers from hp will come with the big price advantage that Tukwila and Nehalem allow more sharing of components than Power7 and xSeries can, so hp will be able to leverage the economies of scale of that massive ProLiant bizz to keep Integrity costs down. Oracle doesn't have a massive x64 bizz (Galaxy can't be described as a tier1 x64 bizz), and the Galaxy servers don't share components with the Niagara or M-series servers to anything like the same extent. So, Rock and T3 will offer poorer performance and at uncompettive prices. Yeah, I can see Larry jumping with joy at that prospect - not!
IBM aren't keeping the Power6+ as a spoiler to the Rock/T3 announcements, they don't need to. They are keeping it ready for the arrival of Tukzilla this Summer. With hp's new servers due around this September, IBM will want to throw a spoiler in there to stop hp pointing out to all those Sun customers they can have a shiny new Tukzilla server in September or wait another six months plus for Power7. After all, if IBM play it the same way they did Power6, they could start with just one part of the range and that could mean customers actually waiting for Power7 in the servers they need as late as 2011.
Interesting though that Novatose is no longer singing the praises of the Fujitsu SPARC64 chips. Are the Sunshiners just sulking because Fujitsu didn't ride in and save their fantasy world like they insisted FSC would? Or is this a silent admission that even the next gen SPARC64 - if it ever arrives - is going to be just as uncompetitive as Rock?
Larry Ellison isn't blind, unlike McNeedy and Ponytail, and he will know better than to follow their blinkered and comic faith in SPARC. Larry may want the Galaxy servers for his new storage stack, but the rest are just a profits blackhole, and I predict Larry will cut them lose without a second thought.
/Novatose - the comedy gift that keeps on giving.
