Intel touts Core microarchitecture, lower-power chips in opening keynote

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Under pressure from smaller rival AMD, Intel Corp. at its twice annual developers conference on Tuesday offered new details of its forthcoming Intel Core microarchitecture, which will form the foundation for its next-generation, multi-core server, desktop and mobile processors due later this year.



The first Intel Core microarchitecture products built on the chip maker's advanced 65nm process technology will deliver both higher-performing and more energy-efficient processors that the company says will spur more stylish, quieter and smaller computers.



The chips, which will use less power than Intel's current lineup and have multiple cores to process data faster, should begin finding their way into notebooks, desktops and servers in the third quarter of the year. By using less power, server chips based on the new Core microarchitecture will reduce electricity and real-estate associated costs, the company said.



Justin Rattner, Intel Senior Fellow and chief technology officer, explained that the Intel Core microarchitecture is the foundation for delivering greater energy-efficient performance first seen in the Intel Core Duo processor earlier this year.



The architecture builds on the power-saving philosophy that begun with the Mobile Intel Pentium-M processor microarchitecture and greatly expands it, incorporating many new innovations as well as existing Intel Pentium 4 processor technologies such as wide data pathways and streaming instructions.



Some of the new advances of the architecture include Wide Dynamic Execution, a feature that delivers more instructions per clock cycle, improving execution and energy efficiency, and Intelligent Power Capability, which helps reduce overall power consumption by intelligently powering on individual logic subsystems only when required.



The Core microarchitecture also includes a shared L2 cache, dubbed Advanced Smart Cache, which reduces power by minimizing memory traffic and increasing performance by allowing one core to utilize the entire cache when the other core is idle. Other features include Smart Memory Access for hiding memory latency and hence increasing performance, as well as Advanced Digital Media Boost, which doubles the execution speed of all 128-bit SSE, SSE2 and SSE3 instructions.



"The Intel Core microarchitecture is a milestone in enabling scalable performance and energy efficiency," said Rattner. "Later this year it will fuel new dual-core processors and quad-core processors in 2007 that we expect to deliver industry leading performance and capabilities per watt. People will see systems that can be faster, smaller and quieter with longer battery life and lower electric bills."



In his keynote, Rattner showed how the company's forthcoming "Conroe" desktop processor could provide roughly a 40 percent boost in performance and a 40 percent decrease in power as compared to the current Pentium D 950 processor. Meanwhile, "Merom," the successor to the "Yonah" Core Duo processor, will provide about a 20 percent speed increase without drawing any additional power.



Most importantly for Intel, Rattner, who acknowledging that Intel is under "tremendous competitive pressure" from AMD, announced that its forthcoming "Woodcrest" server chip will deliver an 80-percent gain in performance alongside a 35 percent reduction in power consumption.



Rattner's opening keynote presentation is to be followed by presentations from several other Intel execs. Coverage will follow.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    I smell a 9-page Ars article!



    If they're keeping the current "Core" name for the new architecture, I wonder what terminology they use to distinguish Yonah/Sossaman from Merom/Conroe/Woodcrest? Maybe Core-64?
  • Reply 2 of 10
    It seems amazing that it only took what seems like 4 years of chip development after the Pentium 3 before they seriously started considering heat and power consumption. Its like they are this little child who is jumping up and down because they realized what everyone else realized 5 years ago. Heat and power consumption are key in a world where energy costs are rising and heat is a major limitation in producing faster computers.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    MMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Woodcrest is teh sexy.



    I'm interested in finally seeing what Intel can truly do. Finally we'll have a bit more info on the nextgen stuff.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by drakethegreat

    It seems amazing that it only took what seems like 4 years of chip development after the Pentium 3 before they seriously started considering heat and power consumption. Its like they are this little child who is jumping up and down because they realized what everyone else realized 5 years ago. Heat and power consumption are key in a world where energy costs are rising and heat is a major limitation in producing faster computers.



    They feel the heat from AMD.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by nagromme

    I smell a 9-page Ars article!



    It would be an article that should be 9 pages but is actually 24 pages when milked to the standard one paragraph and 20 ads per page format that most hardware sites use.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    gene cleangene clean Posts: 3,481member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JeffDM

    It would be an article that should be 9 pages but is actually 24 pages when milked to the standard one paragraph and 20 ads per page format that most hardware sites use.



    AdBlock, PithHelmet, Saft - pick and choose.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member




    Yeah baby! Bring on Conroe







    Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm methink Mac's will be getting fast...fast.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gene Clean

    AdBlock, PithHelmet, Saft - pick and choose.



    I use AdBlock. While it does make a site more useable, it doesn't make it a good site. Especially the kind that has five navigation bars, I think it takes a lobotomy or some sort of illness to design stuff like that.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    sjksjk Posts: 603member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gene Clean

    AdBlock, PithHelmet, Saft - pick and choose.



    Also SafariBlock, SurfRabbit, and maybe others I don't remember offhand.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by JeffDM

    I think it takes a lobotomy or some sort of illness to design stuff like that.



    And it's contagious, whatever it is.



    I'm still surprised how many sites transform into a horribly noisy, uninviting mess during those inopportune times I visit them without PithHelmet filtering. They might as well be shouting "run away, fast!" because that's the reaction they're encouraging.



    Some of these Intel announcements are making it easier to get over any lingering doubts or nostalgia I might have about Apple dropping PPC. I don't have any plans to purchase before next year, unless my +4-year-old iBook G3 gives up the ghost before then and forces me to replace it. Plenty of time for Apple to come out with a few more products to choose from.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm methink Mac's will be getting fast...fast.



    Macs and every other computer with these chips in them. \
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