On Fri, 2011-01-07 at 07:56 -0800, Carl Jokl wrote: > There is also a trend towards integrating more of the computer into > the same dye as the CPU.
Embedded systems chip sets have been doing this for years -- the only novelty here is that this is Intel doing it "big time" for laptop and workstation. > The memory controller went in first. The GPU is going in now. Some CPU > (such as the Utrasparc T1 and T2) integrate a network controller. > I could well expect the PCI Express controller to be a hot candidate > for getting integrated. Also an APU (audio processing unit) for > consumer processors. It's a pity that Oracle canned the Rock processor which was also destined to have support for hybrid hardware/software transactional memory -- which would have made the idea more mainstream. > Some other controllers could also go in such as maybe USB and SATA. > > This kind of increased integration would reduce size and potentially > save power. This also is a definite trend but it is hard to say how > far it will go. > Rather than the CPU dye being part of the computer, this system on a > chip is the computer. > > I have looked at the 1000 core processor article. It does mention > something along the lines of not being a general purpose computer as I > read it and being aimed more at embedded scenarios. I might have > misunderstood. > I think a certain limited amount of use of the 3rd dimension happens > already for modern processors. I don't know that this solves overall > power consumption and power dissipation issues and I could see > potential for expansion that way making chips harder to cool. There are two sorts of core count increases going on here which should not be mixed. Everyone talking about 1000 core processors are really talking about two-dimensional grids of CPU cores or GPGPU core systems. Tilera already produce the first sort (cf. Tile-32, Tile-64, Tile-100) and NVIDIA the second sort. Intel's road map for hybrid and heterogeneous processors is really just playing catchup to avoid losing market share. So yes, this really is system on a chip. -- Russel. ============================================================================= Dr Russel Winder t: +44 20 7585 2200 voip: sip:[email protected] 41 Buckmaster Road m: +44 7770 465 077 xmpp: [email protected] London SW11 1EN, UK w: www.russel.org.uk skype: russel_winder
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