Intel predicts 100-core processors

Intel’s first quad-core processor may not be expected until next year, but that did not stop Intel predicting that it could soon produce processors featuring over 100 cores.

Speaking before the start of the Intel Developer's Forum in San Francisco, Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner announced the launch of a new Tera-scale computing research programme to deliver platforms featuring tens or even hundreds of cores within the next decade.

Such multi-core processors will increase processor performance and help firms to mine their ever-growing data warehouses, and support more sophisticated applications, such as recent developments in the automotive industry towards self-driving cars, Rattner predicted.

The new technology could also reduce energy requirements to carry out complex computing tasks. "Multicore is a very effective way of getting more performance for less energy," Rattner said.

The new research programme will incorporate 80 different projects. It will focus on predicting what types of software workloads will be required in the next 10 years, as well as on increasing memory bandwidth, developing the ability to run parallel threads on many cores and simplifying the programming required for multicore environments.