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Smithfield
Intel's codename for its dual-core Pentium, due out in 2005.
Apparently multi-core is the future Intel sees for both desktops and servers. Oh, and mobiles too. Well, heck, why not: fabrication costs are lower and lower, so stuffing two or more processors in one chip makes sense. Operating systems are mostly SMP capable, so no real barriers there, either.
Interestingly, in the mobile applications, a benefit of dual-core is heat management: if one cpu gets too hot, it can be powered down after shifting processes to the other unit. Or so they say..
AMD is doing its thing too, but their first focus will be on servers, reasoning that server apps are already threaded so can take better advantage.
No so far beyond this, Intel says it will be adding support for virtualization and more built-in security features. The next few years will be interesting, as always.
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---January 4, 2005
Hehe intel is going to add virtualization because AMD is going to add virtualization... Intel is following AMD's lead, it must be frustrating.
IBM has had a profitable "technology exchange" deal going on with AMD. Stuff like fab proccesses and silicon-on-insulator transister technology, however that's not all.
IBM has some hardcore virtualization technology. Similar stuff to VMware, with the exception that IBM has been using virtual machine technology in mainframes since the 1970's.
You see mainframe folks couldn't afford any downtime to rebuild their applications to run on a new mainframe archatecture. So what does IBM do? They build a OS that will run a virtual machine so that they can run the older OS that will run the application.
Hell there are people that are running a OS that runs a OS in a partition that runs a OS in a proccessing partition that runs their ancient programs originally developed decades ago. Or something like that.
Now we see this technology in it's best form in the IBM VM OS. You can run hundreds, possibly even thousands, of Linux operating systems in that OS's proccessing partitions.
And get this: It's at near bare hardware speed. All of that virtualization comes at a very low loss of performance.
Now it seems (to me at least) like part of AMD and IBM's technology cooperation is that when the newer AMD64 cpus come out they will incorporate a high degree of resource virtualization.
After all IBM were the guys that created Virtual Memory, which we all depend on everyday for all modern computers
some interesting stuff:
Xen, open-source x86 virtual machine.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/index.html
IBM is developing a Power-based chip that Sony will manufacture for themselves for the Playstation3. This is the Cell proccessor that rumors have been about.
Linux and Power get along VERY well. Linux on my ibook works very well, and programs that I am using now will run on a Power5 workstation. They are developing many many cores per cpu die. As much as 4 or 8 cores. Playstation3 should have several of these multi-core proccessors.
http://www.eet.com/semi/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=U0JMPPENNVXSIQSNDBCSKH0CJUMEKJVN?articleId=54200580&pgno=2
IBM is going to release a Cell-based workstation for Playstation3 developers. Sony's current playstation2 runs a MIPS proccessor and they took the effort to port Linux to it for developers, porting Linux to a Cell-based workstation or Playstation3 should be very easy in comparision.
Leaves interesting possiblities when you take virtualization technologies and the supposed ability for the Cell archatecture to scale in proccessing power the more Cell-based devices you add to a network. Add a telivision to your network that uses Cell proccessors, it would increase the power of your playstation3. Your friend brings his playstation3 over, they pool their resources and become more powerfull together then either alone. Weird stuff like that. IBM is developing a network protocol that won't need to run over TCP/IP or something like that, it's specificly designed for a highspeed buss between cell proccessors.
Although I don't think all this stuff will realy make it into the Playstation3.
However the currently most powerfull computer in the world is IBM's experimental BlueGene.
It uses 32,768 embedded-style PowerPC proccessors running at a mere 700mhz to spank the previous most powerfull computer: Japan's NEC Earth Simulator. 70.71 TerraFlops vs 35.86 TerraFlops.
http://www.top500.org/lists/2004/11/
The estimated speed of future playstation3 is 25 GigaFlops.
Currently something like a 2.0ghz AMD64 will produce around 2-3 GigaFlops in comparision.
But right now I am looking for the ability to run several OSes at near native speed. With IBM mainframe stuff you can network between the various OSes running in their own proccessing partitions so it should make it fairly easy to interopolate different OSes together if the near-future virtual machines.
So you could possibly run a SCO OpenServer or Windows in a virtual Machine in Linux so that you can run your legacy applications in a Linux server without having to port anything.
Although right now, if your application is low cpu usage you can use something like a Bosch x86 emulator to run legacy OSes. (it emulates a entire computer, so that it can be run on non-x86 computers if you want, but it's very slow It emulates the CPU, disk, cdrom, BIOS, everything.)
http://bochs.sourceforge.net/
Then of course there is VMWare.
--Drag
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