Intel Developer Forum Fall 2002 - Preview

More on Multicore CPUs

The final topic of discussion in our meeting this morning was on multicore CPUs; with technology announcements such as BBUL it's clear that Intel does see a future with multicore CPUs but what sort of a future still remains a question.

In our Inside Intel article we talked about the possibility of having two CPU cores - one high performing core for all critical execution and a lower performing core for everything else. Today Intel extended the multicore possibilities to talking about the benefits of having multiple specialized cores that would vastly change the way server CPUs are viewed as opposed to desktop CPUs; currently the two are very similar but if the future does lay with multicore designs then they could be dramatically different as time moves on.

One such example is that a server CPU with multiple cores could potentially have application specific cores as a part of its array including things like a TCP/IP offload engine or a core optimized for compression. On the other hand a desktop CPU could have fewer cores but more specialized for the tasks of a conventional desktop system.

The first Intel CPU to actually put multicore technology to use will be the Itanium, however Intel was not able to give us a timeframe for when.

Final Words

That's it for this preview of the Fall 2002 Intel Developer Forum but stay tuned as there's much more to come. The first keynote is scheduled to start shortly so be sure to check your mail for the Newsletter and check the front page for updates as we get them.