Will Intel Rise Again?

pcgeek · Joined: Jan 19, 2005 Posts: 26

Intel had the lead for around 14 years, but now they are second to AMD. Intel's next plans is to release processors with the Prescott 2M core and have a 2MB L2 Cache. Intel has halted clock speed increase in favor of other technology. After Prescott 2M is the Smithfield core. This is a dual-core processor and will have the initial clock speeds of 2.8, 3.0, and 3.2GHz. It will have a combined total of 2MB L2 Cache and the top two models will support Intel Speed Step Technology.

Prescott 2M will be 630, 640, 650, 660, and 670.
Dual Cored processors will be x20, x30, and x40 where x is replaced by a number.

Do anyone think this will help Intel gain back the processor crown?

User: inactive Posts:

I never knew it sank. All I use are Intel products. Wink

clhenry · Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2005 7:32 pm Post subject:

Fastway · Joined: Dec 14, 2002 Posts: 1951

I agree Intel has been good to me.

Intel’s lead challenged AMD now AMD is challenging Intel. We as users are the winners we will get new and faster hardware everyday.

Just look at the leaps and bounds in processor speeds and then look at how slow the PCI bus is. If they made the PCI bus match the processor bus speeds just think how your 200mhz processor could run. Ok I know the PCI bus in now getting faster but a 3ghz pci bus would be better don't you think...
Very Happy

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jeber · Joined: Dec 19, 2002 Posts: 4194 Location: The Village

Intel was doing great until the advent of 64 bit processing. Their first 64 bit candidate would only run 64 bit applications, and when AMD saw this blunder, they released their 64 bit processor that also ran 32 bit instructions as well. In the time it took Intel to fix that, AMD had stolen the show.
But I think they'll both continue to battle it out for first place for some time to come. Both products have their fans, and both perform well in different circumstances, so I can't forsee one killing off the other just yet.
Just MHO. Wink

Fastway · Joined: Dec 14, 2002 Posts: 1951

Well so far the real 64bit Windows Xp is not out yet and hopefully Intel will rise to the occasion and go with both 32 and 64 bit as they say they are going to do.... But AMD has had their both out for some time, so no matter what Intel does from here on out they will have to play catch-up. Intel will have to prove they are better faster and more cost effective.

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Charred · Joined: Aug 03, 2003 Posts: 1011 Location: Central PA

Competition is good for the soul. And for PC users. Smile

Bardweiser · Joined: Jan 12, 2005 Posts: 252

Once manufacturing diamonds can be done relatively cheaply (there are a couple of US companies that allegedly have found a way), the first company to master diamond-based processors will rule the market. Until then, it will be a battle of co-processor boards (how well processors work together) and greater cache.

Personally, being a gamer I've always liked the Intel processors more than the AMD.

The All-Eating Bard hath spoken
*burp*

osprey · Joined: Sep 04, 2003 Posts: 1390

Why would being a gamer predispose someone to preferring Intel, AMD has always performed competively with Intel, especially in games. Only falling behind mainly in video editing and conversion. Being a gamer you would know that at present AMD has a significant advantage in gaming, http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2330 , just read the facts. I own processors, from both companies, most differences are over-hyped, and quality is idententical. The sole differenceis usually price.

Fastway · Joined: Dec 14, 2002 Posts: 1951

Bardweiser I was reading some things about man made diamonds and using them in computers sounds like it could be the next great advance once it becomes more mainstream...

Bardweiser · Joined: Jan 12, 2005 Posts: 252

Jerry Edwards · Joined: Mar 31, 2004 Posts: 529

This is very interesting. Where is a source for the making of diamonds? The last I heard, it was so expensive to make diamonds, because of the pressure and heat involved, that they were more expensive than real diamonds. Diamonds, the hardest substance known to mankind, can only be cut by another diamond. Diamonds are ususally cut by cleaving(finding the cleavage points, an exact science). Diamond is pure carbon© and silicon(Si) is not even closely related on the periodic table. Granted, it has been a long time since I was a member of the GIA or have taken physics, but I would be very interested in learning more.

Jerry

Fastway · Joined: Dec 14, 2002 Posts: 1951

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html
http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/02/12.html

And here is the real spooky one(i guess it is still tech related)
http://www.lifegem.com/

Is that you dog hanging arround your neck or your gramdma???

Jerry Edwards · Joined: Mar 31, 2004 Posts: 529

Thanks Fastway for the links. I enjoyed reading them. I didnt care much for the third one. But then, someone has to make a buck.

Jerry

Fastway · Joined: Dec 14, 2002 Posts: 1951

I didn't care much for it either but I just thought I would show how far they have come in the diamond making field and it just goes to show you how weird people can be...

tbernstein · Joined: May 16, 2003 Posts: 1508 Location: London

I just stuck in with this thread for a while, to see if anyone else would think the same as me. To 99.9% of computer users it doesn't matter in the slightest what powers the PC. All that we want is something that will produce nice documents, with useful illustrations and figures that add up, and that they can get working without calling tech support every other week.
I'd trade the last 5-10 years of chip improvements for software that just worked, everytime, whatever else happens to be on the system, in whatever version. As opposed to my creating a nice simple document (nothing sophisticated) on one machine and not being able to open it on another because it used a different version of (say) Publisher. :angry:

Fastway · Joined: Dec 14, 2002 Posts: 1951

I do agree with you tbernstein but what about us .1%ers that like to play.. :D

We want speed coupled with reliability...Besides your apps that you like to run will load so much faster on that 9 gig CPU and be able not to open correctly so fast that you will waste no time cursing out Microsoft for not creating a version compatible office software.. Very Happy

Fastway · Joined: Dec 14, 2002 Posts: 1951

Intel Engineers Use Light Waves to Carry Data

Experimental silicon lasers may bring optics to chips.

Tom Krazit, IDG News Service
Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Intel researchers have developed a method of generating a continuous laser with a silicon device, one of the first steps toward introducing optical interconnects in future processors, servers, and PCs, the company said today.

Exploiting a principle called the Raman effect and using standard chip-manufacturing techniques, Intel built a transistor-like device that can produce a continuous beam of light. Those light waves can carry data at faster speeds than copper, the current standard for chip interconnects, said Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's Photonics Technology Lab. Intel's findings were published today on the Web site of the scientific journal Nature.

"These building blocks are still a research project, but we hope to transfer the technology by the end of the decade," Paniccia said during a conference call Wednesday.

The Shrinking Transistor

Intel's research in this area is part of the chip industry's search for alternative techniques and materials to enable it to continue reducing the size of transistors well into the future. Companies such as Intel and IBM are working on ways to boost chip performance as chip components shrink to the size of individual atoms, a point at which the decades-long practice of diminishing the size of transistors becomes exceedingly difficult.

One way to improve the performance of chips, servers, and networking devices is by replacing the electrical charges that carry data today with light particles (also known as photons). This discipline, called photonics, is well under way in the networking industry, where fiber-optic materials are replacing older copper wire as the preferred means of transmitting signals over long-haul communications networks, Paniccia said.

Unfortunately, fiber-optic materials are expensive and complex. Using silicon materials to generate light waves would solve many of the cost issues, but silicon does not naturally emit light. On the other hand, existing silicon devices can be used as channels for laser beams capable of carrying data signals, Paniccia said.

The Raman Effect

In building a silicon photonics device, Intel researchers drew on the properties of the Raman effect. When a technician pumps a strong beam of photons into a chamber alongside a weaker stream of data, the Raman effect causes vibrating atoms within the chamber to transfer energy from the data stream to the photons. This effect is amplified as the technician allows a second light source to reflect back and forth across the chamber, producing a stronger data beam at the other end of the fiber.

The Raman effect is extremely pronounced in silicon, though it isn't in fiber materials, Paniccia said. One-kilometer lengths of fiber are needed to produce a laser beam of the same strength that mere centimeters of silicon can generate, he said.

Intel has been working with the Raman effect and silicon photonics for over a year, but it has now figured out how to bypass a key roadblock that was sapping the strength of the laser beam.

Silicon is naturally transparent to infrared light waves, so photons passing through it usually have no effect. But on occasion, two photons may strike the same silicon atom at the same time and knock electrons out of that atom. This decreases the strength of the laser as electrons build up and start to absorb photons from the amplified laser beam.

To get around this problem, Intel built what it calls a PIN device, consisting of a sandwich of positively charged silicon, intrinsic or neutrally charged silicon, and negatively charged silicon.

The electrical field generated by the opposing charges sweeps the loose electrons out of the waveguide, or the intrinsic silicon layer, Paniccia said. This produces a steady laser beam at the other end that doesn't lose its strength.

The new laser technology could be used in everything from chip components to portable medical devices, Paniccia said. The silicon laser presented Wednesday is one of many optical components that researchers must test and further develop before it can be used in chip-to-chip or motherboard-to-motherboard connections, he said.

Interesting little read...