80 Core Processor 5 Years Out

[Jamie]

I brought this up a month or so ago. The article I read stated that Intel said an 80 core processor was possible in the next 5 years. It now seems they will indeed have an 80 core processor out on the market in 5 years, if not earlier.

http://news.com.com/Intel+shows+off+80-cor..._3-6158181.html

I'm not sure what the progression will be. This year dual core, by the end of this year quad core will be available. I wonder if we will be "stuck" with the quad core until the 80 core, or if there will be a number of processors between now and then. Five years is not a long waiting period.

I just hope the software and hardware developers will be able to keep up.

[astral]

Dual, Quad, whatever is not really any use unless you have a OS to support and utilise the power efficiently.

MS has made no moves in this direction so far.

However the NonStop servers offered by HP (originally the Tandem Computers) offers

up to 4080 processors and is capable of processing 100's of online transactions per second.

These machines handle almost all of the worlds ATM and POS transactions

and are used in many of the world's Stock Exchanges.

[Jamie]

Right. I believe that is the problem. Not the ability to make the processors, but the ability to make the hardware and software that can fully use the processing power. It will be interesting to see if companies like Microsoft will start developing the software for this progression. If not, I would have to say, the cores will continue to expand in number, and Microsoft and any other software or hardware developer not keeping pace will be left behind.