Intel, Sony to Detail Next-Gen Chips

At the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week, Intel is expected to unveil the design plans behind its upcoming dual-core Itanium chip, which runs cooler than current iterations. Sony, IBM and Toshiba, meanwhile, are making headlines by finally detailing the much-hyped "Cell" processor.

The new addition to Intel's Itanium server processor line, called Montecito, packs in 1.7 billion transistors, while keeping power output limited to 100 watts. Previous chips from Intel topped out at 1 billion transistors and 130 watts. More efficient power means the Montecito will remain cooler, even as it runs faster than current Itaniums as 2 GHz.

The heat reduction is due to new technologies that can slow down transistors when not in use. Intel has also developed a feature called Foxton, which speeds up the Itanium during heavy processing to complete work faster.

Also on the conference docket is the unveiling of technical details behind the upcoming Cell microprocessor for next-generation computing and consumer electronics. Jointly developed by Sony, IBM and Toshiba, Cell has a multicore, multi-thread architecture, made up of a 64-bit Power processor as well was several other processor cores designed to accommodate "massive" floating point operations.

Cell was designed to be versatile enough to perform a wide range of tasks from powering real-time game operating systems, operating systems, and home entertainment applications in addition to high-demand supercomputing tasks.

Cell will likely make its first appearance next year in Sony's PlayStation 3 gaming console, as well as high-definition televisions. Pilot production of the chip is expected to begin in the next few months at an IBM fabrication facility.