Penryn Search - Powered by PodTech.net

IDF Shanghai 2008: Atom-Enabled Devices To Debut

Jason Lopez — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:00:23 +0000

A new processor for the ultra-mobile market is Intel’s latest move to revolutionize mobility computing, from UMPCs to mobile Internet devices and even notebooks and desktops (er, “netbooks” and “net-tops”). While Atom (née Silverthorne) received its brand-new brand name recently, the family of tiny processors, which relies on 45nm technology just like the Penryn line of Core 2 Duo processors, will debut in devices on display at IDF in Shanghai in early April.

It’s no secret that China has come a long way in a short time — from being a country known for manufacturing cheap products for export to being, potentially, the next great IT superpower. National Science Board figures show that in 1994 there were only seven U.S. companies doing research in China. Ten years later, that number had risen to more than 500. Gartner analysts James Popkin and Partha Iyengar wrote, in their 2007 book I.T. and the East, that the world “will witness the birth of a real IT superpower if government restrictions are loosened and the Chinese instinctive talent for entrepreneurialism continues to be encouraged.”

It’s against this backdrop that the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, April 2 and 3, 2008, takes on extra significance. China now supplies the talent, within the country, to conduct advanced research in chip design. At this year’s IDF in Shanghai, Intel will provide an update on new technologies and features that enable devices with better performance, less power, more mobility, and lower cost.

If you’re not attending the event in person, be sure to follow online at Intel’s IDF pages and check in here for more video podcast coverage.

Tags: new processor, ultra-mobile, Intel, mobility computing, UMPC, mobile Internet devices, notebooks, desktops, netbooks, net-tops, Atom, 45nm technology, Penryn, Core 2 Duo, IDF, National Science Board, James Popkin, Partha Iyengar, I.T. and the East, Intel Developer Forum

Fall IDF Video Demo - Faster video encoding on Penryn family of processors

editor — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:00:56 +0000

Darren Yee, Tech Marketing Engineer Intel Software Solutions Group, and I shot a video demo of TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress, a popular video encoder that was optimized for Quad-core and Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (Intel SSE4) instructions on the Penryn family of Intel processors at the Fall 2007 Intel Developer Forum. The demo in the video show how the same application encoding video on both a Core 2 Duo and a Wolfdale dual core processor in Penryn family. This optimized version resulted in an over 2X improvement over Core 2 Duo using the same application encoding the same video clip. The Core 2 Duo machine encoded the file in 1:06 seconds where the Penryn machine tool only 40 seconds. The primary instruction used in this software optimization was MPSADBW for optimized Sum absolute difference calculations, a common operation used in motion estimation. More information on Penryn and the SSE4 instruction sets can be found at:
www.intel.com/software/penryn

Intel Ships New 45nm Penryn Chip

Paul Lancour — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:01:30 +0000

Gordon Moore’s Law will remain in effect for the foreseeable future. Intel Corporation’s new 45nm Penryn microprocessor relies on a new recipe that combines the element Hafnium and metal gate technology to increase performance and significantly reduce eco-unfriendly, wasteful electricity leaks. (more…)

Tags: Moore’s Law, 45nm, Penryn, microprocessor, new recipe, Hafnium, metal gate, eco-unfriendly, wasteful electricity leaks

New, Smaller 45nm Transistors from Intel, Making a Big Splash at Supercomputing 2007

Jason Lopez — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:02:20 +0000

“Penryn” is the name for the upcoming family of processors built on new technology that Intel co-Founder Gordon Moore called one of the biggest advances to transistors in 45 years, PodTech’s Jason Lopez talks with Richard Dracott, General Manager of the High Performance Computing Organization in the Digital Enterprise Group at Intel.

Dracott talks about the possibilities of high performance computing, and about the upcoming SC ‘07 conference, where today’s leading computer companies will feature their latest and greatest products and technology. Featured at the Intel booth will be a contest to build a 768 GFlop processing cluster using the latest Intel quad core processors, and the winner gets to take it home. For more information and to participate, go to ultimatehpcgeek.com. Find more info on High Performance Computers, or go to Intel’s knowledge base Wiki on supercomputing.

Video Highlights From IDF SF 2007

Jason Lopez — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:21:41 +0000

Gordon Moore calls technology the “fundamental enabler” for all other technologies in his live-streamed keynote, available in two videos, here and here. The breadth of technology on display at this year’s Fall IDF in San Francisco confirms the central role that chip technology continues to play in tech advances. Moore’s Law sets the rhythm for what Intel calls its “tick-tock” development of new chip technologies, like this coming year’s Penryn 45-nanometer chips. In this video podcast wrap-up to the Fall IDF, a quick spin through the highlights from a few of the sessions, including Intel Fellows on call to answer any and all questions at the popular Shoptalk, where the experts discussed the future of silicon technology and those red aprons. A virtual walk through the exhibit hall, a look at the technology on display, and highlights from Gordon Moore’s on-stage interview round out the wrap-up coverage in this video postcard from the Intel Developer Forum.

Thanks for joining us at IDF - For next IDF click here

Tags: Gordon Moore, Moore’s Law, Penryn, Shoptalk, Intel Developer Forum

Technology Highlights - IDF-SF Day 2 - Intel Chip Chat - Episode 12b

editor — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 06:15:25 +0000

Get connected with the pulse of Day 2 at the Intel Developer Forum, as Allyson visits the Technology Showcase and recaps key disclosures on Mobility, Penryn and Power Management.

Related Stories: IntelIDF, IntelMooresLaw

Tags: Intel Developer Forum, Mobility, Penryn, Power Management, IntelIDF, IntelMooresLaw

Live from IDF: WiMAX and the Future Wireless Broadband Internet

Catherine Girardeau — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:00:35 +0000

Keynotes from two Intel executives — David (Dadi) Perlmutter and Anand Chandrasekher — kicked off Day 2 at Intel’s Fall IDF in San Francisco. First up, Dadi Perlmutter, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Mobility Group. He covered the latest trends in mobile computing, touching on the key elements for mobility — performance, battery life, form factor and wireless communications. Mobile WiMAX will play a big role in wireless networking connectivity, as he explains in this keynote podcast.

In other news, Intel will launch Santa Rosa Refresh in January 2008. It’s an update to Intel Centrino processor technology that includes the next-gen 45nm high-k mobile processor (codenamed Penryn).

Perlmutter also showed the next generation Montevina processor technology that is set to roll out in mid-2008, which includes the Penryn mobile processor and the next-generation chipset with DDR3 memory support. This is notable for being Intel’s first Centrino processor for notebooks to offer the option of integrated Wi-Fi, WiMAX wireless technologies for greater wireless broadband access.

Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, discussed the personal mobile Internet, and Intel’s “silicon roadmap” that will deliver radical reductions in power requirements and package sizes. He also announced a range of leading industry players working with Intel to establish the MID and ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) categories. In a talk entitled, “Unleashing the Internet Experience,” he also covered the upcoming Intel Menlow platform (including a new processor, codenamed Silverthorne - lots of detail can be found on John Spooner’s blog), and the Intel “Moorestown” platform — System on Chip plus a Communications Hub.

The talk also amounted to a check-in after last April’s announcement at IDF Beijing of the MID Innovation alliance with Asus, BenQ, Compal, Elektrobit, HTC, Inventec and Quanta. Chandrasekher was able to show working prototypes from many of the partner companies, emphasizing the significant progress that’s been made over the past six months.

Also announced were strategic collaborations for MID and UMPC efforts — a step forward for Intel’s “Full Internet in Your Pocket” vision.

And the keynote included what Intel billed as the “world’s first demonstration of Adobe AIR Application on Intel Menlow-based platform” — designed to extend the reach of rich Internet applications.

Go Mobile - Click Here for MIDs and UMPCs

Tags: David (Dadi) Perlmutter, Anand Chandrasekher, Fall IDF, Dadi, mobile computing, WiMAX, networking connectivity, Santa Rosa Refresh, 45nm, mobile processor, Penryn, Montevina processor, Anand Chandrasekher, Ultra Mobility, ultra-mobile PC, UMPC, Intel Menlow, Silverthorne, Moorestown, System on Chip, MID Innovation, Full Internet in Your Pocket

Otellini Keynote, Live from IDF

Catherine Girardeau — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:59:38 +0000

Paul Otellini looked back on 40 years of innovation at Intel, outlined the company’s three main capabilities (silicon technology, Intel architecture, and market creation), and gave his vision for the future. “Today’s innovations are the basis of future technology,” Otellini said.

Intel has brought out new technology every two years for the last 14 years, putting Intel co-founder Gordon Moore’s “Moore’s Law” into practice. From 45 nanometer technology, Intel has its sights set on 32 nanometer microprocessors for 2009.

Otellini also talked about platforms — the unique combination of microprocessors and chipsets, “tailored for the task at hand.” In the immediate future is Penryn, 45 nanometer dual-core products, the first of which are launching on November 12. Next year, Intel plans to launch Nehalem, a scaleable, multi-core system — 8 cores, each with 2 threads. (Specifics on the launch aren’t available yet — Dean Takahashi reports from IDF that it’ll be released “as soon as it’s ready.”

While discussing the multi-core Larrabee effort, Otellini may have revealed a little more than he intended by indicating it amounted to a move into discrete graphics (he later clarified, according to The Register’s Ashlee Vance: “I said that among the applications for Larrabee one of them is high-end graphics.” Other sources provide a play-by-play of the proceedings.

In addition to adding more cores, Intel is also improving the performance of individual cores, and of power efficiency.

What does the future hold for Intel? The long list of efforts includes pushes in extreme mobility, including ultra-mobile devices with integrated WiMax/Wifi; entertainment — with talk about extreme performance, graphics capability energy efficiency for extreme gaming; problem-solving geared for Enterprise innovations; performance and energy efficiency initiatives including the Climate Savers Initiative & compliance with EPA Energy Star rating program; and creating and reaching new markets, with initiatives to get the 3rd million people connected, through programs like “Intel Teach.”

Tags: Paul Otellini, Intel, silicon technology, Intel architecture, Gordon Moore, Moore’s Law, 45 nanometer, 32 nanometer microprocessors, microprocessors, chipsets, Penryn, Nehalem, IDF, Larrabee, discrete graphics, ultra-mobile devices, WiMax, Wifi, extreme performance, extreme gaming, Climate Savers Initiative, Energy Star rating, Intel Teach

Exclusive From IDF: Intel CTO Justin Rattner

Michael Johnson — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:07:54 +0000

Intel CTO Justin Rattner’s candid preview of events at this week’s Intel Developer Forum included an overview of the presentations on Intel’s Penryn and Nehalem processors, and recent progress toward 32 nanometer chip production (and Intel’s efforts to keep up with Moore’s Law).

He also discussed Intel’s work on new rendering via a technology called ray tracing. According to Rattner, there’s a synergy betweeen the ease and increased ability to render using the power of Parallel Computing.

The bottom line from the CTO is that Intel is engaging developers and users in new ways, with the aim of defining what the next generation of paralell and multi-core computing will be like.

Tags: Justin Rattner, Intel Developer Forum, Penryn, Nehalem, 32 nanometer chip, Moore’s Law, rendering, ray tracing, Parallel Computing

Architecting Next-Gen 45nm “Penryn” - Intel Chip Chat - Episode 2

editor — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:00:37 +0000

Stephen Fischer, lead architect for Penryn, talks of major innovations in the next-gen 45nm process technology, and explains this tick in the Tick Tock model in his interview with Allyson Klein.

IDF Beijing: Doing More with Less

Jason Lopez — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 03:21:09 +0000

The day 1 keynotes at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing featured CTO Justin Rattner and Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president of the Digital Enterprise Group. They talked about new developments at the company. Rattner filled in some detail around Intel’s research efforts (and explained the critical importance of China in these initiatives–the company plans to build a new fab in the northeast-China city of Dalian) as well as offered a lively demonstration of 80-core Tera-scale technology.

Pat Gelsinger, who helped shepherd Tera-scale research, offered insights into the Penryn microprocessor and the products it will power after its release later this year. He also talked about highly parallel, IA programmable architecture codename “Larrabee.” Also in the keynote podcast, Gelsinger unveils QuickAssist Technology to optimize the use of accelerators in servers, and Tolapai to integrate the memory controller, I/O controller hubs and an Intel QuickAssist Technology accelerator into a single processor.

Tags: Intel Developer Forum, Justin Rattner, Pat Gelsinger, Penryn, Larrabee, QuickAssist, Tolapai, Intel

Intel’s 45nm Chips and a Wii Exercise Craze…?

Jason Lopez — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 23:37:27 +0000

The Nintendo Wii may not spark an exercise fad, but, in at least one well-publicized case, it may be leading to some welcome weight loss. Also this week, we stopped by Intel, which was showing off its latest chip, Penryn. The 45 nanometer transistors on this microprocessor are being hailed as an engineering miracle (PodTech’s had a chance to get to see it in-depth, here. PodTech’s Robert Scoble also got some great footage here and here.). Intel scientists wouldn’t let us get too close to the actual microprocessor or take close photographs. IBM, which announced 45 nm technology today but still has their 45nm project in the development stages, would probably love to get a look at one, too.

Tags: Nintendo, Wii, Intel, Penryn, 45 nanometer, microprocessor, Robert Scoble, IBM

Intel Says 45 Nanometer Microprocessors Due Later This Year

Jason Lopez — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 08:20:06 +0000

This video was commissioned by Intel.

Intel announced that it will begin making 45 nanometer chips, code-named Penryn, in the second half of the year. The new microprocessors are the culmination of years of R&D using new materials to improve the efficiency and performance of silicon-based semiconductors.

The company says the new chip technology maintains Moore’s Law, the observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in the late 1960s that the number of transistors doubles on chips every two years. Intel scientists say that transistors are now so small that more than 300 can fit on a human red blood cell.

In a recent earnings announcement, Intel officials said they expect to rebuild a lead in the computer chip market through innovation and manufacturing efficiency. Intel’s current line of microprocessors includes the Core2Duo, Core2Extreme, and Core2Quad.

In this video podcast, PodTech’s Jason Lopez visits Intel’s Hillsboro, Oregon research facility and fab.

Related Stories: IntelMooresLaw

Transcript:
Host: Jason Lopez – PodTech
Guests: Intel Spokesperson
Guest: Kelin Kuhn - Intel

Jason Lopez – PodTech
Transistors are the miniature machines of the heart of computers. The first transistors built on silicon in the 1960’s were relatively large compared to those of today. But in the last few years, scientists have sensed The End of Moore’s Law as the quest to double a number of transistors on a chip every two years has pushed the limits of physics.

This test wafer is used to measure the reliability of billions of H transistor and interconnect features, the blue prints for making microprocessors. For nearly 40 years, transistors have been made from a polysilicon gate and silicon gate oxide, the materials used to create the switch inside that turns it on and off. But with 65 nanometer technology currently in production, those materials have been pushed to their physical limits. To go smaller at 45 nanometers scientists said Intel chose new materials a Metal gate and High-K gate oxide based on the element hafnium. These materials have enabled yet again the doubling of the density of transistors within a two-year timeframe.

Intel code names its new family of 45 nanometer chips ‘Penryn’ which deliver a significant improvement in power efficiency and performance.

Speaker
This is a really tremendous accomplishment to get all the way down to 45 nanometer dimensions. When I joined Intel five micron dimensions were common. 45 nanometers is more than a 100 times smaller than that. So, quite remarkable.

Kelin Kuhn - Intel
If you think about it, if you look at the Intel 45 nanometer device technology, we can fit 400 transistors on something about the size of the human blood cell.

Speaker
So, it allows us to continue scaling and maintain this Moore’s Law type of evolutionary built up we’ve seen.

Speaker
Well, developing smaller transistors or technologies with smaller feature size is very key, because it allows you to pack more transistors on a chip which means you can do more things with that chip, that also means that these transistors when they’re smaller can use less energy when you switch them on and off. So, you have better power efficiency, you can get certain computational functions done using less energy, less power.

Jason Lopez - PodTech
Intel’s drive to adhere to Moore’s Law is as much an economic decision as it is a scientific one. It’s one thing to make the Metal gate and High-K gate oxide technologies work. It’s another to make 45 nanometer chips enlarged volumes to satisfy the market. Intel’s lead in the chip industry is based on its ability to deliver cheaper and faster microprocessors.

Speaker
Well, one of the key things that Intel does very well is what’s called Design for Manufacturability and the key there is to make sure that the product design and the process manufacturing technology are able to work together and produce high yielding, high quality products and because we’re an integrated device manufacturer, we do the design in-house, we do the process development in-house, we’re able to do a really good job at Design for Manufacturability up front and produce these chips in high volume.

Jason Lopez - PodTech
Metal gate and High-K gate oxide only atoms thick are more electrically efficient helping to reduce heat and power lost from leakage and improving transistor performance by 20%. The idea to use new materials has been around for more than a decade, but the technologies to deploy them were developed by hundreds of engineers over the past few years.

Kelin Kuhn - Intel
Okay so, if you think about how we build gate oxides, historically, we’ve used very simple silicon dioxide materials basically glass, and as we’ve developed our technology expertise over the years we started doing very elegant things to this glass to make ever better oxides basically the gate of the transistor.

When we introduced the Intel 45 nanometer process we moved a hafnium-based material as a radically different way of resolving our gate leakage issues and so it’s a very novel material system that’s intrinsic to the type of leakage improvements we see. Chip design was simple once and we don’t do that anymore. It’s complicated now because we already did the simple stuff that’s my humorous answer, but I think in today’s world if you look at a modern microprocessor. We’re talking hundreds of millions of transistors and it’s incomprehensible that humans can build this to be honest.

Every time we have a success in the fab. I sit back and look at this and we’re looking at devices that are one-tenth the wavelength of light. Little tinnie winnie devices and humans can build these very complicated things and if you think about it, a yielding dye in our process technology means every single transistor worked. Every single one of those 100 million transistors worked and that’s when we sell them. Can you believe it? Humans can actually make something where every single one of a hundred million plus devices worked, it’s remarkable, and we don’t do it as individuals, we do it as an international team.

Speaker
We had the fly of the wafers to Arizona, get them assembled and then fly them back to Folsom, California in order to actually test them.

Jason Lopez - PodTech
So, what was the feeling of the team when you booted up that first OS?

Speaker
I would say one word it was ‘Euphoria’. The team was just tremendously excited. When you considered a number of people involved in the two–and-a-half years that culminated in this boolean of major Operating System with Penryn, it was an awesome feeling.

Jason Lopez - PodTech
Is that simply because it worked or is it because a number of things work?

Speaker
Yeah, it really represents the fact that a number of things worked. Coming out of reset is not so monumentous as say (Inaudible) up to boot Windows XP, or Windows Vista or Linux because there is a lot of functionality that has to be working to reach that level of capability. So, the team was obviously excited for that. All this happened around. I believe we booted around 3:30 in the morning and there was just a lot of adrenalin in the lab at that time and this is a lot of excitement.

Jason Lopez - PodTech
It’s like a moon shot only you didn’t have the big screen looking.

Speaker
Yeah, you could say that. Maybe on a smaller scale, but yeah, that’s equivalent to us on the engineering team as our moon shot.

Tags: Intel, 45 nanometer, Penryn, microprocessors, semiconductors, Moore’s Law, Gordon Moore, Intel, Core2Duo, Core2Extreme, Core2Quad, Jason Lopez, IntelMooresLaw