Parallel processing: Coming to a desktop near you

Computerworld - Intel Corp. and the PC industry are about to go through a major change in the way client computers are designed, built and marketed, Intel President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Otellini said during his introductory address today at the Fall Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.
Otellini officially pronounced the megahertz era dead during his talk. Intel has gradually shifted over the past two years away from a marketing strategy based on ever-increasing clock speeds to a plan that improves performance with new features and technologies.
The company will focus on parallel processing with future products, Otellini said. This will include multicore processors, virtualization technology and a continuation of Intel's hyperthreading technology.
Analysts had been hoping that Intel would provide more details about plans to introduce dual-core processors in 2005, which it abruptly announced in May. Otellini didn't take the bait, declining to even provide the code names of the upcoming processors. He did, however, reiterate that the company would introduce dual-core chips for desktops, servers and notebooks in 2005, with most of the growth coming in 2006.
As promised, Intel demonstrated a dual-core processor. An Itanium 2 server from Silicon Graphics Inc. was shown running a weather modeling application on Montecito, Intel's previously disclosed dual-core Itanium 2 processor. Montecito is due in 2005.
The move to dual-core processors will proceed much faster for notebook and server processors. Otellini said. More than 75% of Intel's 2006 shipments in those categories will be dual-core chips, with just under half of all desktop chips in that time frame containing two cores, he said.
In the meantime, Intel will continue to bring new features to its chips. It has already introduced hyperthreading and 64-bit extensions, and it plans to bring virtualization and security features to its chips in the future. Otellini demonstrated a digital office PC that could run different applications and operating systems on a single chip with Vanderpool, Intel's virtualization technology.
Vanderpool and LaGrande, Intel's code name for a digital-rights management technology, won't ship in Intel products until Microsoft Corp. releases Longhorn, Otellini said. Longhorn, the code name for the next generation of the Windows operating system, is expected in 2006.
Otellini also discussed the WiMax broadband wireless technology, which Intel believes could help bring broadband Internet to areas that aren't served by fixed broadband lines (see story). WiMax could have the same effect on broadband deployment that cellular phones have had on the deployment of fixed-line phones, Otellini said.
The company announced that samples of its first WiMax chip are