New Intel chips with 'double shakthi'

SAN JOSE: Intel Corp. , the world's largest chip maker, outlined plans for two new chips that will have two or more processors on a single piece of silicon, boosting the performance of corporate server computers.

The new chips are a 32-bit Xeon server processor MP, code-named "Tulsa," which will be its first dual-core chip, and a new 64-bit Itanium server chip, code-named "Tanglewood," Intel President Paul Otellini said in his keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum.

Tanglewood will come some time after 2005 and Tulsa in two to three years, he said.

In an interview, Otellini declined to say what plans Intel has for bringing 64-bit chips to PCs. Currently, its chips for PCs crunch 32 bits of data at a time.

"The production operating systems are not there yet" for 64-bit desktop computers, he said. "The mainstream applications won't exist until next year."

Apple Computer Inc. already offers a personal computers based on a 64-bit chip, while Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is set to unveil its Athlon 64 for PCs later this month.

A future Itanium processor, code-named "Montecito," will be the first chip with one billion transistors, according to Otellini. It is targeted for production in 2005, he said.

Otellini also gave a timeline for pending chip manufacturing process technologies that allow Intel to shrink the circuitry and space between transistors to fit more of them onto a chip, thus increasing their computing power with no increase in cost or size.

He showed for the first time a wafer containing chips made with 65 nanometer process, which will be in production in 2005, he said.

Those chips will be followed by 45 nanometer process chips in 2007; 32 nanometer process chips in 2009; and, in 2011, 22 nanometer process chips, which will have transistor space that is smaller than the width of a DNA molecule, he said.

Otellini also talked about how the market for PCs and handsets is growing, particularly in China. He predicted that by 2010 there will be 2.5 billion wireless handheld devices and 1.5 billion broadband PCs worldwide.

Currently, China is the No. 1 market for telephones, cable TV and mobile phones and the fourth largest market for PCs, he said. By 2010, China will be the top market for PCs, Otellini predicted.

WIRELESS, CONVERGENCE

"Convergence is going mainstream," Otellini said, adding that four years ago Intel executives predicted there would be one billion connected PCs and one billion connected handsets. "Phones are there today; PCs are just about there," he said.

Wireless is growing at a phenomenal rate, he said. The number of wireless hotspots -- locations where people can connect to the Internet with their laptops -- is expected to grow from 50,000 to 80,000 by next year, he said.

There are about 12.7 million wireless access points, with a new one being deployed every four seconds, he added.

Otellini also outlined some features the Santa Clara, California-based Intel is embedding into its processors, including LaGrande security technology and Vanderpool technology that allows one processor to act as if it were two different machines.

LaGrande, which will be available in two to three years, will protect data by storing it in protected areas. Vanderpool, which will be available in the next five years, will create a partition inside the chip to allow it to be used for different programs on different machines.

© Reuters