India's hardware design prowess on the global map

A Bangalore-based team has developed the Intel Xeon 7400 series processor, which is Intel’s first six-core central processing unit.

India's hardware design capabilities have got a shot in the arm with the launch of semiconductor giant Intel's next generation microprocessors, which were fully designed by the Intel India development team here. The project that was started almost two years ago with a team of around 300 design engineers was finished two months ahead of the schedule.

INTEL’S INDIA CONNECTION

Intel started its India operations in Bangalore in 1988

The Bangalore-based Intel India Development Centre (IIDC), Intel’s largest non-manufacturing site outside of the US, started operations in 1998

Intel India’s workforce has grown from 100 employees in 2000 to about 2,500 in 2007

Intel’s investments in India to date have been over $1.7 billion

The product development teams at IIDC contribute significantly to most of Intel’s products and platforms

Smaller than the size of a matchbox, each microprocessor contains 1.9 billion transistors, which makes it suitable for companies that handle a heavy amount of data. Formerly codenamed Dunnigton, the Intel Xeon 7400 series processor is Intel’s first six-core central processing unit (CPU). Such servers can be deployed to handle data demanding workloads in sectors such as BFSI, telecom and the stock market, according to K Ananth Krishnan, CTO, Tata Consultancy Services, which helped in conducting the validation and testing of the microprocessors.

Internally, TCS is planning to use the servers that use Xeon 7400 series microprocessors. According to Intel, more than 50 system manufacturers including Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM and Sun are soon expected to launch servers based on the Xeon 7400 processor series.

The previous generation of microprocessors had four processing units (cores) in each chip. Three years back, for 96 CPUs you would have had to install 96 servers, which would have occupied a lot of space. "But now we can have the same computing power in one server, which will not only consume less area, but less power as well. Besides, when compared with the previous generation Intel processors, the power consumed by Xeon 7400 microprocessor will be at least 10 per cent less," explained R Ravichandran, director, sales, Intel South India.

The six-core microprocessor features six processing ‘cores’ built into each chip with 16 MB of shared cache memory. This makes the servers that use such microprocessors suitable for handling intensive enterprise applications such as databases, business intelligence, enterprise resource planning and server planning.

Intel India started focussing on hardware design almost six years back. The design of Intel's first six-core Xeon microprocessor was completed on August 15, 2007, when India was celebrating its 60th year of independence. The Intel India team planned and executed the complete design activities including front-end design, pre-silicon logic validation and back-end design. The post-silicon validation, which test the market readiness and the product performance, was also undertaken at Intel's Bangalore facility.

"We are really enthralled to be a part of the team that worked with this complex project which earned us the distinction of designing India's first microprocessor productised for the global market. This is, in fact, a great day for semiconductor research and development in India," said Praveen Vishakantaiah, president, Intel India. "Going forward, India would continue to be a strategic location for high-end technology development for Intel globally," he added.