The VAR Guy

The third and final day of Intel Developer Forum 2011 saw the chip giant shift its focus from its Ultrabook mobility strategy to its more forward-looking energy-saving technologies including a solar-powered Pentium-class processor concept, baked-in-chip capabilities to boost JavaScript performance, a super-high capacity Hybrid Memory Cube, and the rise of multi-core computing. Here’s the scoop on Intel CTO Justin Rattner’s keynote.

The so-called Near Threshold Voltage Processor, presented by Intel Labs, is a solar-powered Pentium processor that needs less voltage, thanks to circuits that operate at or just above threshold. In other words, it only boosts its power consumption when needed by a heavy workload; otherwise, it keeps things light.

Intel has no plans to productize the Near Threshold Voltage Processor. But it is representative of advances in power consumption technology, according to Intel. Dave Courbanou, your usual correspondent here on The VAR Guy, believes it was included in the keynote as a response to competitor AMD’s APUs, which are gaining major traction in the mobile market thanks to their low power consumption. In fact, Intel said the Near Threshold Voltage Processor can cut consumption by as much as 300 times.

Similarly, the Hybrid Memory Cube isn’t a product but an idea for DRAM — Intel, in collaboration with Micron, has come up with an architecture for stacked memory chips, forming a compact “cube” that represents as much as a sevenfold improvement in energy efficiency over existing DRAM. The technology, when it actually hits, will have the potential to greatly boost physical processing density in the data center, with fewer machines needed for more power (putting aside the obvious applications for mobile devices).

As for multi-core, Intel highlighted how far the technology has come since it demoed the first dual-core processor at IDF five years ago. To wit, Intel highlighted several creative applications for multicore processing customers and company engineers have developed. For example, Intel cloud guru and friend of TalkinCloud Billy Cox briefly took the stage to hype increases in queries per second for Memcached applications thanks to second-gen Intel Core microprocessors.

In terms of concrete releases, Intel Labs released Parallels JS, an experimental engine to boost JavaScript performance that opens the door for browser-based applications in areas such as photo and video editing.

And that, as they say, was that for IDF 2011. You may have noticed this recap is shorter than those from days one and two. That’s because where the first two were focused on nuts and bolts, this one was all about stuff that won’t hit the market for months or years — if ever.

Regardless, Rattner’s keynote definitely contained plenty of food for thought. Stay tuned to The VAR Guy for some final thoughts on IDF 2011.

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