80 isn't nearly enough

Data supply will be even more important: From the article:

"...assuming that all those cores are given the necessary appropriate memory and I/O bandwidth."

Don't brush this off with just a passing mention. Keeping data supplied to 80 cores is going to be more difficult than it will be deciding what to use all these processing units for or how to program them. Processors that don't have anything to work on will sit idle. As clock speeds have increased, memory and bus speeds have not kept up the same pace.

Even if the speed of cores is kept constant, processors with 80 cores is a leap of more than 6 doublings. In terms of applying Moore's Law, this would be an advance of 9 to 12 years of processing power increases from single-core processors. If Intel can produce 80-core chips in, say, five years, will memory technology be able keep up, let alone practically double the speed curve that has been followed for the last decade or two? I'm skeptical.

- silent E
--
Turning dams into dames since 1974.; Posted by: silent E Posted on: 02/13/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Reply to Story Reply to Message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

simple multi core trend poeta nascitur | 02/14/07

Terrific article. Prognosticator | 02/26/07

Oh Please Inflection | 03/06/07

On the personal scale Hrothgar - PCLinuxOS User | 05/14/07

Marketing Spin moloned@... | 05/21/07

What do you think?

Here to help you with your Document Management Needs
Check out Doc’s Blog on ZDNet
Help your company, help the earth I want to share with you the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator, which allows you to gauge your organization's environmental impact.
Which is Greener: Paper or Digital? The Answer May Surprise You Anything we can do to reduce paper consumption is good. But what about the impact of digital waste?
Produced by
ZDNet and