IDF – Chips ahoy!
As expected, firm details of Intel’s new Nehalem processor and a sneak peak of its upcoming Larrabee processor dominated the three days of announcements from Intel’s Developer Forum (IDF) held in U.S. this week. We went to San Francisco for the event.
Ever since chipmakers like Intel and AMD began edging up on the physical limits of what clock speeds their processors could run at, the semiconductor space became more interesting.
Instead being judged on the clock speed of their silicon, vendors are getting judged by the number of features they can cram into their new offerings, to what degree architectural changes can eke extra performance out of a chip and lastly, how many cores (distinct processing units) they can cram onto a single die.
Although AMD contends its architecture will allow it to take the performance crown back in the coming months, Intel remains the leader in time being.
With the availability of its new processor line, Nehalem, and the upcoming Larrabee platform that it says is set to revolutionise the way we think about conventional computers, AMD might have a tougher time than it anticipates.
