Intel Developer Forum To Focus On Platforms

Technology disclosures at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco March 1-3 will focus on platforms and how Intel is promoting multiple initiatives to advance computing performance beyond standalone processors.

"Our platforms are collections of technologies that are essentially developed together, integrated and tested together, to provide strong functionality and user value at a system level," says Frank Spindler, VP of technology programs for Intel.

The first full platform Intel delivered was Centrino, its mobile system that integrates processing and wireless capabilities. More recently, the company provided chipset and storage-controller introductions along with its Nocona Xeon processor introduction last summer. Coming up, Intel plans a specifically branded platform for the digital home, Spindler says.

At the forum, Intel will provide demonstrations and new details on its latest processor advancements, including multicore, 65-nanometer manufacturing capability and its Star Technologies, including hyperthreading, virtualization, and 32/64-bit processing.

Intel will also offer details about its I/O Acceleration Technology, which Spindler says can improve interaction between networked clients and servers by up to 30% and can outperform more traditional TCP/IP offload engines in 90% of applications. The technology will be utilized across Intel products, including processors, chipsets, and network controllers.I/O Acceleration Technology "helps to significantly enhance the data movement or packet movements on server platforms," Spindler says. "This is a perfect example of a platform approach where you can do things together than you could not do if you were just looking at a processor." Additional details about the technology, including planned availability, are expected to be disclosed at the forum.

Intel will demonstrate working dual-core processors manufactured using its next-generation 65-nanometer process at the developers' forum. The company has said it will begin producing the devices later this year.

Intel also will provide details of its multicore road map for the next decade, which, Spindler says, will include processors with "many, many" processing cores by the 2015 time frame.