Intel Unveils System-On-Chip Product Plans
The Santa Clara, Calif., chip giant said it's developing a family of SoC products for enterprises under the code name "Tolapai" that will integrate several components on one piece of silicon.
Intel said the first chip in the family, due out in 2008, will reduce chip sizes by as much as 45 percent and cut power consumption by 20 percent, as compared with a four-chip package. The Tolapai processors will use Intel's QuickAssist Integrated Accelerator technology, also introduced at the conference, that's designed to speed the performance of single-purpose functions such as security encryption.
Currently, Intel supports acceleration using its multicore processors and third-party accelerators in a server, but the company said it eventually plans to develop integrated accelerators inside its IA processors.
Delivering SoC processors is deemed significant in light of rival Advanced Micro Devices' lead over Intel in providing integrated systems on a single piece of silicon.
At the first IDF in China, Intel also discussed its plans for a SoC product for consumer electronics devices in 2008. Intel announced a media processor, but the company said its IA-based SoC for consumer electronics won't be available until next year.
Its first product, the Intel CE 2110 Media Processor, is based on Intel's 1GHz XScale CPU, MPEG-2 and H. 264 video decoders, DDR2 memory interface and 2D/3D graphics accelerator. ASUS and Digeo are among several IHV partners that plan to use the processor in set-top boxes and media players.
Intel said it plans to develop a unified IA-based architecture for PC and consumer-electronics platforms devices that will be available in 2008.