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Intel sees x86 everywhere in future

Daniel Fleshbourne   on 03 July 2008 - 13:31 · 26 comments & 14476 views

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Intel expects to see Moore's law continue for the near future and also plans for its x86 processor architecture to extend across everything from small embedded devices right up to supercomputers, according to the head of its Digital Enterprise group, Pat Gelsinger. However, programming techniques are going to have to evolve to make better use of many-core chips.

Speaking at a briefing to mark Intel's 40th anniversary, Gelsinger gave his predictions for the future of computer technology, focusing on the key areas of Moore's law, many-core chips, the Intel architecture (IA), and visual computing. Gelsinger said that Moore's law would continue to extend into the future, and said that Intel has a roadmap for 32nm, 22nm and 10nm chips.

"I can recall in the past we thought reaching 1 micron (1 micrometre) would be hard," he commented, adding that as each milestone was reached, the way ahead became clearer, despite predictions that Moore's law was running out of steam.

View: The full story @ vnunet

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#1 WAR-DOG on 03 Jul 2008 - 14:19
Ok, the hardware industry has come up to a point, where it has to wait for the software industry to fully catch up before we make the next step...
#2 Lasker on 03 Jul 2008 - 14:59
Wow, I can't believe a processor with 10nm design how efficiently will be in term of energy saving?
#3 PureLegend on 03 Jul 2008 - 15:02
Grand Central FTW
(1 reply) #4 TruckWEB on 03 Jul 2008 - 15:11
Just when are we supposed to see this next great awesome GPU from Intel? Feels like they are talking about it for more than a year now and we still don't have anything real...

What's next after 10nm? How small can things go?

#4.1 Oxuyoska on 03 Jul 2008 - 16:39
(TruckWEB said @ #4)
What's next after 10nm? How small can things go?



Ask Mr. Chronopolous, he knows a lot about how small things can get.
(3 replies) #5 Kreuger on 03 Jul 2008 - 16:52
Is this an umbrella term or are they not including the x86-64? I thought 64bit was the future?
#5.1 WAR-DOG on 03 Jul 2008 - 17:38
64bit is good, but useless for the next 5 years... as far as the everyday consumer is concerned...
#5.2 MioTheGreat on 03 Jul 2008 - 17:40
(WAR-DOG said @ #5.1)
64bit is good, but useless for the next 5 years... as far as the everyday consumer is concerned...


5 years? Are you kidding? You can get cheap computers ($900) with 4gigs right now.

In 5 years, 4gigs will be like 512mb is right now.
#5.3 X'tyfe on 03 Jul 2008 - 21:17
(Kreuger said @ #5)
Is this an umbrella term or are they not including the x86-64? I thought 64bit was the future?


i knew this would happen

you see, now people are confused because people call 64-bit x64 which is not correct
x86 = 32bit and 64bit


(1 reply) #6 xSuRgEx on 03 Jul 2008 - 17:23
no 64it was just to make n00b home users pay out for some thing they dont realy need. wouldnt suprise me if intel decide
#6.1 imis on 03 Jul 2008 - 18:00
(xSuRgEx said @ #6)
no 64it was just to make n00b home users pay out for some thing they dont realy need. wouldnt suprise me if intel decide

(2 replies) #7 on 01 Jan 1970 - 00:00
#7.1 GreyWolfSC on 03 Jul 2008 - 20:19
(boho said @ #7)
Hallelujah!

What Intel giveth Microsoft taketh away!

What extra does the 10 GB of O/S of Windows 2008 / Hyper-V do, that Windows 2003 and Virtual Server 2005 at 1 GB achieves. Hardware has to continually increase just to cope with the massive quantities of code. What does it all do? Does anyone understand the layout of the filing system on Vista /2008 server?


What are you talking about? There is absolutely no mention whatsoever of Microsoft or their servers in this article.
#7.2 Airlink on 03 Jul 2008 - 23:03
Please don't feed the trolls.
(2 replies) #8 Magallanes on 03 Jul 2008 - 22:06
In the future, will be possible to assign memory per core? . So, a single core (32bits) can runs up to 4gb, a dual core up to 8gb and so on.

So we can't be forced to jump over a (nobody like) 64bits architecture.

Anyways right now 1gb (2gb if uses vista) is just fine for 90% of the users and the rest is for server, render node and such.
#8.1 MioTheGreat on 03 Jul 2008 - 22:26
(Magallanes said @ #
In the future, will be possible to assign memory per core? . So, a single core (32bits) can runs up to 4gb, a dual core up to 8gb and so on.


Why would you ever want to do something like that?
#8.2 Airlink on 03 Jul 2008 - 23:18
But to answer your question... that would be a "no." If you have two cores with two memory banks, you effectively have two computers, not one. You could link them together and do distributed computing through a fast local bus, but it still would not just be one computer. By definition, a 32-bit processor uses 32 bits to refer to the location of each byte of memory. 2^32 = 4.2 billion, which means a memory address that's 32 bits long can only refer to 4.2 billion unique locations (i.e. 4 GB). It doesn't mater if each core has it's own memory assigned to it: A core is not a CPU, and it's the CPU, not the core, that adresses the memory bank(s). It's the whole machine that is limited to 2^32 = 4.2 billion bytes, not just the cores.
Even in multi-CPU (multiprocessing) 32-bit servers, you can't have more that 4 GB of RAM. No way, no how, no duh. It's only when you move to x64 that more than 4GB becomes possible.

Also, remember that each device on the system bus that has it's own dedicated memory address(s) assigned to them use up the available addressable system memory, even though this memory may not be RAM. This is why systems with video cards cannot get to 4GB of addressable RAM under 32-bit OS: The video card has VRAM that is using up some of the addressable memory space.

Say you wanna run a 32-bit system with 4GB of ram and a pair of 1 GB video cards. Guess what, it's not gonna happen. You'll get 2GB of RAM at best, even if you slot 4GB. Hence, x64 is really the only way forward. Eventually, video games will actually NEED 4 GB of ram and then all the 32-bit gamers will be S.O.L.
(6 replies) #9 ivanz on 03 Jul 2008 - 22:15
ARM uses way less power and delivers better performance in embedded environment. I believe ARM has a 90% share of the embedded market, and x86 less than a few percent.
#9.1 Airlink on 03 Jul 2008 - 23:21
ARM is a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) processor.
x86 is not.
Don't compare apples with oranges.
#9.2 RAID 0 on 04 Jul 2008 - 00:11
There are/were some x86 RISC CPUs.
#9.3 Airlink on 04 Jul 2008 - 00:58
What you meant to say was that there were some x86-BASED RISC CPUs.
True x86 is CISC, not RISC.
#9.4 RAID 0 on 04 Jul 2008 - 04:59
(Airlink said @ #9.3)
What you meant to say was that there were some x86-BASED RISC CPUs.
True x86 is CISC, not RISC.


Yes. The AMD Athlon 32 bit CPU was RISC based, if I remember correctly.
#9.5 ivanz on 04 Jul 2008 - 09:23
(Airlink said @ #9.1)
ARM is a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) processor.
x86 is not.
Don't compare apples with oranges.


Eh? For an embedded environment, say using Linux, you can directly compare performance. The only main difference is the performance of things like the FPU operations....which most ARM CPUs have added instructions to make up for it. Why do you think NVidia chose ARM for their embedded SoC if they want to support full HD on a ~400 MHz CPU? You wont get close to that on x86.
#9.6 MioTheGreat on 04 Jul 2008 - 16:29
(RAID 0 said @ #9.4)
(Airlink said @ #9.3)
What you meant to say was that there were some x86-BASED RISC CPUs.
True x86 is CISC, not RISC.


Yes. The AMD Athlon 32 bit CPU was RISC based, if I remember correctly.


x86 is mixed RISC and CISC (Which in my mind makes it CISC)

Many processors internally split up complex instructions into simpler ones, making the actual execution RISC-like, but the high level architecture is still CISC. Look up 'microoperations'
(1 reply) #10 Budious on 03 Jul 2008 - 22:24
We've had *nix for 40 years, so keeping x86 around should be now surprise. When something works, there is no need to replace it. Intel tried with Itanium to change the architecture and failed miserably. IBM has good alternative architectures, but with essentially all applications written for x86 in mind, until there is a larger margin of benefit for moving to new architecture, x86 will persists.
#10.1 vetmarkjensen on 07 Jul 2008 - 16:15
You mean x86 for 40 years?

The "big iron" unix types have been running on a large variety of non-x86 CPUs, so we aren't really talking software here, but the CPU architecture/hardware side of computing.
#11 burfadel on 09 Jul 2008 - 15:25
x86 generally refers to 32-bit only. Intel only see that in the future because its AMD that actually came up with a working and efficient 64-bit architecture. The operating systems used for it are called x64, but the true architecture name is AMD64. Intel does not like this, and is one reason why they call their fully compatible (ie same) version EM64T. Despite what people may think, 64 bit is the future. Its faster, thats a fact, and I think its more reliable (this is more of a windows programming thing). 32 bit programmes do run faster on 64 bit, and 64 bit applications get the added benefit. If people think 64 bit is a waste of time then 32 bit was also a waste of time?hmmm...

And the general fact is, 32 bit does not support 4gb of memory, you are limited to just above 3gb. To get full 4gb or more support you need Physical Address Extension, and PCI memory remap. Physical Address Extension is messy, even though it has been around for a long time still doesn't really work properly as many have found. 4gb is definitely needed now, especially if you are doing video editing or playing games. The only thing you don't really need 64 bit for is everyday word processing, but even then 64 bit certainly does not hurt!

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