
The Intel Developer Forum, or IDF, has been one of the most important entries in Intel's event calendar. This fall's show starts off with a plethora of news, with the upcoming Core 2 Quadro processor being the most important. Intel's CEO Paul Otellini did not miss the opportunity to emphasize the benefits and opportunities of four cores on the desktop and in the enterprise space - and he referred to Tom's Hardware Guide as his favorite tech website.
This statement relates to our early quad core "Kentsfield" preview, which we released two weeks ago. We did not have Intel's blessings for this project, nor did the firm provide samples or support in any way; yet is seems this article has become the reference for everyone who is looking for information on upcoming processor technology.

Core 2 Quadro, a CPU that hosts four processing units inside one physical package, was the center of IDF.
Apple And Intel United
Intel is very good at presenting its developments in a way that creates the impression as if the next years would already be carved out of stone. While the product portfolio is in a fluent state and requires periodical adjustment, this impression is certainly true when it comes to technology. With 65-nm processors being widely available for desktops, notebooks and servers, and the competitor still in the process of ramping up 65 nm mass production, Intel's target of being two years ahead of the competition seems to be in reach. The 45-nm process (P1266) is expected to output production silicon by the middle of 2007.
Apple's decision to jump on the Intel wagon, which was triggered by the current Core micro architecture, has had a positive impact on both companies: Intel describes the partnership as very beneficial, because Apple committed to a professional system (Apple Mac Pro), which is based on two Intel Xeon Woodcrest processors.

Apple and Intel work together very well now.

Remedy is working on quad core support for games and the early demo was pretty impressive.
Games and multi-core processors were mentioned in almost every tech session that dealt with quad and multi-core CPUs. Game developer Remedy showed impressively how games can benefit from multi-core processors by sharing workloads across multiple processing units.

80 FPU Cores On A Chip For Teraflop Performance

Intel is experimenting with multi-core (80 cores) processors to hit teraflop performance on a single chip.
This is not a drill, this is serious: Intel is in the process of developing multi-core processors that are capable of increasing floating-point performance into the spheres that are reached by computing clusters today. The projected performance of Intel's 80-core prototypes at the time it could become available is expected to hit one teraflop. At this point it's also interesting to note the floating point performance of a Pentium 4 processor: A 3 GHz model reaches 0.006 teraflops, which underlines the impressive capabilities of the 80-core prototype. We have to add that floating point performance is more important for scientific applications and number crunching than it is for desktop applications, but it might enable geologists to analyze drill test samples on their way home instead of processing it in expensive server farms.

The teraflop prototypes are large and rather sophisticated, but they host 80 FPU processing units on a single die.

Intel's next mobile platform Santa Rosa will include 802.11n wireless, the 965GM chipset and NAND memory.
The beginning of a year has been Intel's period to introduce its latest mobile platform generation. In early 2007 we will see the 965GM Northbridge together with the ICH8M Southbridge (code-named Crestline), 802.11n wireless for up to 600 Mbit/s gross bandwidth and NAND Flash memory instead of NOR, which is considerably smaller. Intel also promises further increased performance of the integrated graphics engine, which it expects to be at the level of entry-level discrete graphics. This will be a very important topic since Intel has to react to AMD's recent acquisition of ATI.


802.11n is expected to deliver 12 times more gross bandwidth than 802.11g - so far this is still in theory.
Intel Networks A PC With A Volkswagen Passat

Intel drove a VW Passat onto the stage to show off the communication between a car and a PC.
Cars on the stage are pretty common nowadays. We've seen muscle cars at IDF and a Mini Cooper at CeBIT. This time, it's a rather normal car, which more people might be able to identify with: A Volkswagen Passat. It looks like the partnership with BMW is over now.
Power Supplies To Reach 90% Efficiency?

New power supply designs will allow for efficiencies of up to 90% soon.
Being a silicon products company does not mean to limit the business to processors and core logic products. Intel presented voltage regulators that are expected to enable power supplies at an efficiency of 90%. Today, most power supplies work in the area of 70-80%, with only few models exceeding 80% efficiency. The remaining 20-30% are energy that is converted into heat and thus is wasted.
