Intel Hits 50 Gbps Throughput With Photonics [Lightspeed]

When we last left the intrepid research scientists at Intel, they had managed to hit 40Gbps throughput using something called the Avalanche Photodetector. It’s been two years since that report (yeah, this has been in development for a while), and the gang at Intel have not been idle, let me tell you. They’ve managed to improve the field of photonics to achieve throughput of 50 Gbps! While not as much of an advance as one might like to see in two years, this is still a respectable achievement.

Here’s an explanatory video showing what exactly is going on.



People are talking about this like it’s some breakthrough that just happened, but it’s been in the works for years now, and is far from hitting the streets. Even Light Peak, Intel’s new high-speed standard aimed at consumers, isn’t ready for use yet.

We’ll let you know when this one is fully baked. Probably about two years from now.

[TechCrunch]

50-core processor brings us one step closer to the Singularity [Intel]

You're looking into the eye of a monstrous processing beast. Intel just showed off this 50-core processor it's calling 'Knights Corner' an energy-efficient 22-nanometer processor that will somehow shoehorn more than 50 cores onto a single chip. Sheesh, and we thought 12 cores was mind-blowing.

Intel, you're teasing us — no release date was announced. But as soon as this baby's unleashed, computers will be able to do lots more things at once — in this case, 50 processes at the same time.

Meanwhile, programmers will need to know how to write software that can be efficiently multi-tasked by this 50-headed beast, so Intel's now seeding a few developer kits to get code writers working on this multi-headed hydra. When they do, computers will be a lot faster, one step closer to the Singularity, when computers are as smart as humans.

[DVICE via Electronista]

Intel Atom Processor Supports Android, Runs up to 1.5 GHz [Intel]

The race is on for faster, more capable processors in your smart phone. Intel's new Atom (Moorestown) processors are out and they're pushing the envelope forward. The new chips can run in speeds up to 1.5GHz for smartphones and up to 1.9GHz for tablets. Compatible with Android, these processors will offer support for WiMAX, 3G/HSPA and WiFi. It might be a few quarters before we see this actually arrive on phones, giving companies like Qualcomm time to prep their 1.5Ghz chips, too. Get ready for more phones full of win!

[AndroidGuys via Engadget]

Intel predicts Light Peak to replace USB 3.0 [Light Peak]

Intel pundit Kevin Kahn predicted that Light Peak may overtake USB 3.0 before it even starts. The 10Gbps standard is poised to become the mainstream technology as soon as 2011, beating the technology it’s intended to replace to the mainstream.

While Light Peak is currently considered to work with USB 3.0, the sure blazing speed could serve to make it become the standard before the older technology has a chance to take off. Mr. Kahn stated that Light Peak will become available to PC manufacturers later this year, and shipping in early 2011.

[CrunchGear via Electronista]

Intel’s new Gulftown i7-980X CPU reviews well [Core i7]

Intel cut loose some benchmarking samples of their new, top of the line CPU, the i7-980X Extreme Edition. This is not a CPU intended for the causal use, but rather aim directly at the gaming market. MSRP for the CPU all by itself is a jaw-dropping $999, and rumors are already circulating that the OEMs are already looking at coming out with systems that utilize the new processors.

The reviews are looking good too. There’s just one little problem. There’s no software out there that can really take advantage of the new processor threading yet. See, the i7-980X supports up to 6 cores, which means it’s a multi-threading monster, but if the software doesn’t support it, you end up spending a grand on future proofing. Not a terrible idea, I mean it’s not like it’s worthless, but don’t expect the your brand new smoking CPU to be all it can be until the software can take advantage of it.

Don’t take my word for it, I haven’t actually seen one of these bad boys yet, but all the reviews out there are pretty much saying the same thing.
[CrunchGear]

Intel and Micron's 25nm NAND Flash: The Secret to Cheap SSDs [SSD]

Intel and Micron's IMFT joint venture's just announced they've started producing NAND flash using 25nm transistors—they're pushing 8GB on a single die—with products shipping sometime this year in fatter capacities (up to 600GB). In English:
Using the smaller 25nm manufacturing process, they can get roughly twice as much storage in the same amount of space as the current 34nm flash manufacturing tech. More storage in the same amount of space, as we learned before, doesn't just mean more storage, it means more storage for cheaper.
[Gizmodo via Anandtech]

LifeBook MH380: Fujitsu’s new netbook with Pine Trail processor

Intel’s Pine Trail Atom processor (1.66 GHz Atom N450/unveiled earlier this year) is one of the key elements in the LifeBook MH380, Fujitsu’s latest netbook. The MH380 has a 10.1-inch glossy LCD screen with LED backlight, 200nits brightness and no less than 1,366×768 resolution. What’s quite unique design-wise is the tiny circle area (next to the trackpad), which enables circular motion scrolling.

You also get 2GB of RAM, a 250 GB SATA HDD, a card reader, a 1.3 MP web camera, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, USB/SD/SDHC ports, and Windows 7 (Starter). The made-in-Japan MH380 has a battery life of 7.5 hours and weighs just 1.3kg (2.97 lbs).

Fujitsu America will start selling the MH380 next month (price: $449). It will be available in brown, black and white.

[CrunchGear via Netbooked]

Intel's New Superefficient-But-Fast Laptop Core i5 Chips on Jan. 7 [Intel]

Intel's dropping a big bowl o' chips January 7th—17 of 'em—like the first lower-end Core i3 chips, but we're most excited about the Arrandale Core i5 for laptops: still fast but more efficient 'cause they're shrunk to 32nm.
Remember all the excitement about Penryn a couple years ago, which took the Core 2 and made it more efficient with a new manufacturing process? It's the same deal here, as the tick of Intel's tick-tock cycle. "Tock" is a whole new microarchitecture, while "tick" is a die shrink of that, which makes it more power efficient. Nehalem is the tock—it was 45 nanometers—and Westmere is the tick, shrunk to 32nm.
Arrandale is what this set of mobile Core i5 chips, based on Westmere, is called. (Here's our primer on Intel codenames.) One thing in particular about Arrandale is that it has a graphics core built right onto the main chip package, which Intel says is good to go for Blu-ray.
Anyways, what all this means is that there's about to be a whole bunch of new laptops with faster, better Intel chips inside that won't munch your battery as hard.
[Gizmodo via Cnet]

Intel Demonstrates Programmable 48-Core Chip [Processors]

The cores aren't terribly powerful (described as being like lower-end Atom processors) but hey...it's got 48 of them, and it's programmable.

Dubbed as the 'Single-chip Cloud Computer' (SCC), the 1.3-billion transistor processor one ups it's 80-core Polaris predecessor because it can run standard x86 software. So far, it has successfully booted Windows and Linux during demonstrations.
Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner explained what he envisions for the future of these superchips:

'The machine will be able of understanding the world around them much as humans do,' Rattner said. 'They will see and hear and probably speak and do a number of other things that resemble humanlike capabilities, and will demand as a result very (powerful) computing capability.'

Speaking of powerful computing, this development comes only a couple of weeks after physicists demonstrated their first programmable quantum processor.
[Gizmodo via Intel via CNET]

The Intel Reader Photographs Text and Reads it Back to You [EReaders]

Intel's Reader for the visually impaired isn't a concept; it goes on sale today. Using an Atom processor, 5-megapixel camera, and Intel's Linux-based Moblin OS, it turns book pages into digital text and MP3s…then reads aloud in a synthesized voice.

Ben Foss, Director of Access Technology at Intel's Digital Health group said the device is also intended to assist those with severe Dyslexia, an impairment he himself grew up with. 'We want people to experience the independence of being able to read on their own in a public place or anywhere they want to.'
Prototypes of the paper-back sized device were tested with more than 400 visually-impaired users, including some who were completely blind. The reader can adjust the speed of reading, and it's 2GB of storage can hold about 500,000 pages of text; roughly 600 pages of scanned books.
At $1500, it's not cheap. But compared to even more expensive Braille readers, it has a shot as a specialty device.
[Gizmodo via Intel via VentureBeat]

Rumor: Intel Atom N450 (Pine Trail) to launch on January 3rd?

Fudzilla is reporting that Intel’s new Atom N450 chipset – codenamed Pine Trail (see previous coverage here) — will officially launch on January 3rd.

Previous reports suggested that the chipset will be made available to manufacturers sometime this month, to which I speculated that we’d see Pine Trail-equipped netbooks around the holidays. If Fudzilla’s report is true, though — and the site makes no reference to any sources, so take the information with a grain of salt — then it appears these new netbooks would make an appearance just in time for CES.
Whatever the case, the 1.66GHz CPU will apparently sell for around $64, which is $20 more expensive than current N270 package. The Pine Trail platform shifts the system from a 3-chip architecture down to a 2-chip architecture in order to save physical space and, theoretically, reduces power consumption and improves performance.

New Atom N450 for netbook launch is January [CrunchGear via Fudzilla via SlashGear]

New Wi-Fi Direct to Connect Gadgets Without Routers [Wireless]

Coming mid-2010 there will be a new Wi-Fi standard that will allow any Wi-Fi gadget to connect wirelessly with each other without having to go through a wireless router. The best thing: It will only require a software update.
The new standard is called Wi-Fi Direct and—unlike Bluetooth—the technology will enjoy exactly the same speed and range as Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi Alliance—which includes Intel, Microsoft, and Apple—says that it will automatically detect and hitch any device equipped with Wi-Fi within a 300 feet range, from computers to cameras to TVs to printers to anything in between. All peer-to-peer.
The Wi-Fi Alliance and everyone else—including myself—are pretty excited about this. So excited that they are planning a big advertising campaign to make people move to it. And since it will only require a downloadable software patch, you can expect the technology to become ubiquitous pretty fast.
Farewell, Bluetooth. It was not a pleasure to meet you. [Gizmodo via Wi-Fi Alliance]

"

Intel Light Peak Optical Tech Achieves Insane 10Gb/s Speeds [Intel]

Today at IDF, Intel unveiled Light Peak technology, a plan for an extremely high-speed optical cable they hope will land on consumer products in 2010. Imagine transferring an entire Blu-Ray disk in 30 seconds. And that's just the beginning.
In Intel's words:

Existing electrical cable technology in mainstream computing devices is approaching practical limits for speed and length, due to electro-magnetic interference (EMI) and other issues. However, optical technology, used extensively in data centers and telecom communications, does not have these limitations since it transmits data using light instead of electricity. Light Peak brings this optical technology to mainstream computing and consumer electronic devices in a cost-effective manner.

Light Peak delivers 10Gb/s speeds right now, and could conceivably go as fast as 100Gb/s within a decade or so. Those kinds of speeds are even sustained over a 100-meter distance, which is really impressive. Intel is currently working with hardware manufacturers (computers, handhelds, etc) to try to get the optical tech onto devices sometime in 2010. [Gizmodo via Intel]

Intel's "Tangent Bay" Laptop Concept Has 3 OLED Multi-Touch Screens Above the Keyboard [Intel]

That's four screens in total. Crazy, right? The prototype's three mini-screens let you organize and play files without taking up room on the main display. You can also use multi-touch gestures, and drag files between screens. Watch it in action:

This week's Intel Developer's Forum has a history of weird and wonderful prototypes. As it has with MIDs and UMPCs, the company uses concepts to as reference platforms in the hopes that manufacturers will take interest and use its chips. No word if anyone has signed up on this one, but it's a nice juicy insight of what type of products might be around the corner. [Crave Asia]

AMD Confirms Six-Core Consumer Processors Codenamed "Thuban" [Amd]

Just one day before Intel's IDF conference, AMD dropped a little bit of a bomb on us, confirming that they will bring hexa-core processors to consumer computers. Even better, they'll be backwards compatible with existing AM3 and AM2+ motherboards.
The processor will be a version of AMD's six-core server processors, and will place all six cores on one 45nm die. AMD warned that clock speeds will probably not be quite as high as current quad-core processors (MaximumPC suggests this may be due to "added thermal output from the two additional cores"), and will have 3MB of L2 and 6MB of L3 cache. It'll be competing with Intel's "Gulftown" (probably Core i9)when it debuts next year. But the best news here is the backward-compatibility—unlike Intel, you won't have to replace your motherboard if you want to upgrade to the "Thuban" procs. We hope Intel follows suit, and we'll let you know how they respond later this week from IDF. [MaximumPC via Engadget]

Intel starts production on its versatile 32-nanometer chips

Intel has started to produce the ultra-dense 32-nanometer chips it needs to bring about the next generation of processors. What's that mean for you and me? Well, two things, depending on the architecture of the 32nm chips: faster computers, phones and more, or ones that use less energy.
That's because Intel is focusing on "systems on a chip" production (or SoCs), which allows the company to tweak each chip depending on what it's going into. Raw power is fine for computers, for instance, but specialty instances of the processors — such as in phones and cars — require a little something different.
It's also this SoC-oriented approach that represents a departure for Intel, as the company will try to offer a variety of components it doesn't normally include in the manufacturing process. This shift in direction is thanks, in part, to the $7 billion the company has invested to adapt its US plants for 32nm manufacturing.
Intel wants to be the first to bring the 32nm technology to the market, with chips going into computers and electronics by the end of this year, and opening up the 32nm SoC line early next year.
The 45nm chips we use now aren't dead, however, according to the Wall Street Journal:

In the meantime, Intel next week plans to discuss Jasper Forest, a 45-nanometer SoC targeted at products such as communications and data-storage equipment. On Thursday, it is expected to follow up with Sodaville, another 45-nanometer chip for digital TVs, set-top boxes and media players that combines its Atom microprocessor with circuitry for graphics, video and other functions.

Via the Wall Street Journal

אינטל במהירות האור

אינטל בדיוק שיחררה חדשה על מעבד הסיליקון (צורן) הפוטוני החדש שלה והמהיר ביותר עד כה. לדעתי הוא גם היפה ביותר מבין המעבדים הקיימים היום.

המעבד החדש יכול לקודד 200 גיגה ביט של מידע בשניה על קרן או לעומת המעבד המהיר (והעלוב) ביותר של היום שמסוגל לעבד רק 100 גיגה ביט ולא עשוי מצורן. המעבד הזה הוא רק הצצה למעבד שצפוי להגיע לפס ייצור תוך 3-5 שנים שיוכל לקודד טרה-ביט מידע בשניה ויהיה בגודל של ציפורן.

איך זה פועל? המעבד של אינטל לוכד קרן אור ומפרק אותה ל-8 ערוצים, כשכל ערוץ עובר דרך מודולטור (אפנן) אשר מקודד מידע על גבי אור. הקרניים עם המידע משולבות בחזרה לקרן יחידה ו...וואלה. כל זה קורה בקצב של 25 גב"ש לכל אפנן. אלו הם אבני היסוד למחשבי העתיד בהם נחושת תוחלף בקרני אור. לפני שזה יקרה אינטל מעוניינת לדחוס 25 אפננים כאלה על מעבד יחיד כאשר כל אחד מהם יעבוד בקצב של 40 גב"ש, אולי בשילוב של לייזר היברידי על-גבי המעבד שיכוון את קרני האור לאפננים במקום סיבים אופטיים.

קדימה אינטל, אני ממתין לתוצאות.

[דרך גיזמודו דרך MIT Tech Review]