Intel plans to integrate processor and chipset

Intel is planning a radical PC redesign in which multicore chips will have memory & I/O functions.

Intel processors are traditionally connected to a chipset comprising a memory controller and an I/O controller.

In the new design, the functions carried out by these chips, and other components inside the PC, will be integrated with the processor, with the processor becoming the system architecture instead of a component.

Intel revealed the plans at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) conference in Beijing last week.

Intel has been preparing the ground for the developer since 2002, when the company added simultaneous multithreaded processing capabilities to enhance performance in its Pentium 4 chips.

Until that point, most computers consisted of a single processor core running a single thread of instructions, an architecture which had remained unchanged for decades.

A further radical innovation was the introduction of AMD’s Athlon 64 processor, which integrated the memory controller with the processor on a single die.

This was followed in 2005 with AMD’s introduction of dual-core processors, and the Intel’s release of the first quad-core chip in 2006.

Intel engineers are now designing chips with multi-cores which integrate many of the functions assigned to other chips. As the number of cores increases, so does the number of threads that can be processed simultaneously. This allows for significantly enhanced performance.

In 2008, Intel will begin shipping Tolapai, a system-on-chip that includes an x86 processor, integrated chipset, and an encryption coprocessor for server appliances, marking the way for a growing range of system-on-chip solutions.