Intel to launch advanced processors

KSHITIJ 2008 @ IIT KHARAGPUR

As the information technology and telecommunications industries see products getting more compact, smaller and cheaper, IT major Intel plans to launch advanced processors like 'Westmere' in 2009 and 'Sandy Bridge' in 2010 which would sport Intel's new micro-architecture of 32 nanometre.

Speaking at Kshitij, the IIT-Kharagpur annual festival, R Sivakumar, managing director (South Asia) of Intel India, said, "Consumer demands and competition make us constantly look at innovation. As product sizes and prices keep dropping, we will launch products that would not only be advanced in terms of speed, technology and performance, but also get more compact in size and cheaper."

Intel invests close to $5 billion every year in research and development.

Intel's microprocessor "� Intel Core which was launched in 2006 is 65 nanometre.

In 2007 it launched 'Penryn' which is of 45 nanometre while this year it is set to launch Nehalem.

More advanced microprocessors in 2009 will be 32 nanometre and would get more compact in the following years, informed Sivakumar.

Intel is also looking at 'revolutionary platforms' in an attempt to 'go green' and design products that are more energy efficient.

According to Sivakumar, 90 per cent of desktops do not utilise power management settings, an average desktop wastes nearly half the power delivered, while servers lose approximately one-third of their power, because these are not energy efficient.

"We are therefore looking at ways and means to design and manufacture products that would make optimum use of power. All our products will also be more energy efficient resulting in reduction of long-term operational costs," Sivakumar said.

Such energy efficient products are also expected to reduce operational costs and increase efficiency of businesses.

Talking about the IT industry, Sivakumar said, going forward, the IT industry will be driven by factors such as digital multi-radios, platform power management, multi-core architecture, and silicon breakthroughs.

"The web will become 3D in future, driven by industries such as gaming and entertainment. Going forward, the film industry will be the largest consumer of the most advanced technologies in the world," Sivakumar said.

According to him, about two billion videos are viewed every day and about half a trillion web searches are recorded every year.

There are about one billion consumer email boxes and about 100 million social networking sites, which would nearly treble every year.