Intel announces 3D transistor breakthrough

Nvidia gains ground in battle with Intel

Nvidia's stock has skyrocketed recently as it has become apparent that the company could be a key player in the lucrative mobile processor market and has plans to make chips for personal computers and servers, challenging the monopoly of its large Silicon Valley rival, Intel.

Intel to make programmable chips for startup

Intel announced today that it will use its advanced 22 nanometer technology to manufacture programmable chips for Silicon Valley startup Achronix.

Achronix said the deal would allow the maker of FPGAs, for field programmable gate arrays, to incorporate the cutting edge 22 nanometer technology ahead of market leaders Altera and Xilinx. Intel, which normally does not make semiconductors  for outside chip companies, is believed to be far ahead of other foundries in the development of 22 nanometer technology.

"This is a historic development," said Achronix chief executive John Lofton Holt. "Intel is far ahead of anyone else in new process generations."

FPGAs can be programmed for specific tasks after they are purchased by customers, which include makers of telecommunications and networking equipment, industrial and aerospace applications.

Related articles

• Intel Takes a Wider Role, Making Chips for Others (nytimes.com)
• Intel Grants Rare Access to Start-Up (online.wsj.com)

Intel demos next generation CPU-GPU chip

Intel showed off its next generation Sandy Bridge chip at this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

Sandy Bridge is the result of a major design effort to improve graphics performance. Graphics in Intel chips to date pale in comparison to graphics in chips sold by its smaller rivals, AMD and Nvidia. Sandy Bridge is a hybrid chip that, for the first time, puts the graphics processor on the main processing unit.

Sandy Bridge was designed in an effort to allow Intel to compete with AMD and Nvidia in the gaming market, reports CNET's Brooke Crothers. Read more

Related article:

• Intel takes the wraps off its "Nvidia killer" (venturebeat.com)

Editor's Choice: Intel scholarships help young scientists

Eric Larson, 17, of Eugene, Oregon, won the $100,000 top prize at this year's Intel Science Talent Search for classifying mathematical  objects called fusion categories, a discipline of group theory. William Sun, 17, from the St. Louis, Missouri suburb of Chesterfield took second place for a biochemistry project "that studied the effects of a recently discovered molecule that could potentially help efforts to treat bacterial infections or prevent neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease," according to Intel. Third place went to Philip Streich, 18, of Platteville, Wisconsin, whose project investigated carbon nanotubes. 

Among the 40 finalists was as student at Menlo Atherton High School in Menlo Park, California. Julia Ransohoff, 17, tested the effectiveness of adult bone marrow stem cells in treating damaged heart tissue following a heart attack. She conducted her research while working as an intern at a lab at Stanford University. Ransohoff got to meet President Obama the same day that he announced changes in federal policy that would stimulate embryonic stem cell research.

iGriot: Rumors cloud Intel-Nvidia turf war

As Intel's battle with Nvidia heats up, the chip giant is having trouble keeping its powder dry. Intel (INTC) rushed a new netbook processor to market ahead of schedule in response to the threat from Nvidia's (NVDA) Ion platform, which also targets the netbook market.

The new Atom N280 processor is paired with a chipset that allows users to watch high-definition content on netbooks while using less power. Intel originally developed the Atom N270 with the 945GSE chipset  for netbooks to run basic applications, which did not include hardware-based HD video decoders. The Ion platform allows netbooks to display 1080p HD content, which is superior even to  Intel's new Atom chip.

A revolution in parallel computing has put Intel on the defensive. Its lethargic  legacy CPU serial computing empire is being threatened by faster GPU parallel technology which needs less power. Nvidia's confident leader, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, is often denigrated the way the head of any rebellion would be. The turf war has escalated to the point where rumors make it difficult to see who is winning the numerous battles.

The battlefronts most subject to rumors include smartphones, game consoles and partnerships with Apple. According to an analyst at Broadpoint American Technology Research, an upcoming Microsoft smartphone will use Nvidia's Tegra chip. Microsoft has denied the rumor.  Apple will eventually use the Arm-based chip in the iPhone, the San Francisco-based research firm is speculating. Nvidia will also power new mobile devices made by HTC, says Broadpoint. Tegra puts an Arm-based processor, a GeForce graphics core and other components onto a single chip.  An older rumor, reported by Tom's Hardware, suggests that when Apple's Mac Mini is updated it will use the Ion platform. The Inquirer is the source of the most recent rumors.

Intel will design Sony's Playstation 4 GPU, reports Charlies Demerjian. Advanced Micro Devices's (AMD) ATI unit will likely develop GPUs for the Xbox3 and Wii2, suggests the Inquirer. That would mean Nvidia is being left out. 

The rumor which requires the most imagination is Nvidia's plan to release an unsanctioned x86 processor. The Inquirer  also made that  allegation recently.  Shortly after AMD announced its plan to buy Nvidia's  chief competitor, ATI, in the summer of 2006, speculation was rife that Nvidia was seeking an x86 license. A year after AMD's announcement, Intel officially revealed its plan to develop its first graphics card, name Larrabee. The plan moving forward for Intel and AMD is to couple their respective graphics cards with the x86 CPU to compete in the new parallel computing environment. It seems logical. And it seemingly leaves Nvidia out in the cold.

At the present time, however, Nvidia's CEO does not plan to follow that roadmap. Huang does not believe that the x86 architecture and license is the hurdle that many analysts suggest it is. He is promoting "visual computing" and  is concentrating on next-generation GPUs. Time will tell who has the better idea.

Its possible AMD may have shot itself in the foot when it bought ATI. The huge,  multi-billion dollar pricetag has been a debilitating burden. Premium GPUs require very large capital expenditures. As a result of its financially compromised position, AMD has been forced to cede the high-end GPU segment to Nvidia.

To add insult to AMDs' injury, Nvidia appears to have bright prospects even without the x86 license. Apple has bought into the Ion platform - at Intel's expense. According to Steve Jobs, the Ion solution is five times faster than the Intel architecture that's been replaced in Apple's laptops.  Nvidia has pioneered a new wave of desktop high performance computers (HPC) which use a hybrid CPU-GPU. The lack of an x86 license has prompted Nvidia to lead the development of the  nascent market for general purpose graphics processing units, known as the GPGPU. The emerging personal supercomputer platform has had a huge impact on how engineers and scientists tackle complex  design and simulation projects. Nvidia's Andy Keane, general manager for supercomputing,  is pushing its new Tesla processor as the heart of this new paradigm. Intel has not benefited from x86 as it seeks to promote the Atom chip as a smartphone solution. The ARM core is the predominate smartphone processor because it uses much less power than x86 chips. 

Editor's Choice: Nvidia pushes Ion platform

Nvidia is promoting its new Ion platform, which couples its GeForce 9400M GPU with Intel's Atom processor. Part of the promotion involves distributing test units to tech publications. Atom is the dominant chip in the increasingly popular netbook.The GeForce 9400M is the same GPU that powers the revamped Apple MacBook. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang described the Ion platform in a recent interview with Laptop. A PC World video suggests the Ion platform will be a big enhancement to netbooks.

iGriot: Intel battle with Nvidia takes shape

Intel (INTC) is being forced to reinvent itself in order to maintain its leading position in the semiconductor industry. Intel is the king of serial computing. A paradigm shift is taking place, however, and parallel computing is the new game in town. Parallel processing has to do with the practice of writing programming instructions that are divided among multiple processors. Parallel processing on a single chip across multiple cores is faster and uses less power than its legacy serial counterpart.

There is a David and Goliath struggle taking place today between the incumbent chip giant and upstart Nvidia (NVDA), the leading maker of computer graphics cards. A graphics processing unit or GPU uses parallel processing. The expertise that Nvidia has developed designing the GPU has put it in the enviable position of now being able to challenge Intel's CPU domain. To be fair, Advanced Micro Devices'(AMD) ATI unit also makes graphics cards. However, they do not have the deep pockets to produce premium graphics cards, which require heavy capital expenditures. They will fair no better in this battle with Intel than they have in the past. They continue to hemorrhage red ink, which, despite a respected brain trust, was their achilles' heel in the past.

One of Intel's key longterm battles in preserving its kingdom involves capturing the nascent market for 3D film. Last summer, Intel delivered a huge blow to AMD when it formed a partnership with Dreamworks Animation SKG, the leading promoter of 3D movies. After a three-year contract with AMD ended, Dreamworks picked Intel to supply chips and 3D technology for its computer animation operation. The deal is expected to replace the studio's computing hardware, including 1,500 Hewlett-Packard servers and 1,000 workstations that use AMD microprocessors, with new HP systems that use Intel chips, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The alliance comes as Dreamworks looks for 3D animation to bolster dwindling theater attendance.

The partnership makes its debut March 27 with "Monsters and Aliens." Intel and Dreamworks showed off the fruits of their labor with an expensive Super Bowl commercial promoting the 3D movie. InTru3D is the brand name Intel has given its 3D technology. According to Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dreamworks plans to make all of its feature films from now on using InTru3D technology. Katzenberg is helping to promote Intel's future graphics chip, which it calls Larrabee. "We are well on our way to upgrading our software to really take advantage of Larrabee," said Katzenberg. "Larrabee raises the bar of what we can do not just by 2x or 3x but by 20x," he said. The Dreamworks CEO says that InTru3D is the third major innovation in film, with talkies and the transition from black-and-white to color being the first two.

When it is unfurled, Larrabee will compete directly with Nvidia and ATI and take Intel into unchartered technological waters. Larrabee will be a stand alone chip. Currently Intel uses low-end integrated graphics as part of a chipset. The new chip will be based on the ubquitous x86 architecture. Dreamworks used the Xeon processor to render Monsters. In the future, Nehalem chips will be used pending Larrabee's arrival, probably sometime in 2010. Monsters will be the first animated movie to be made in real 3D, instead of converting the film to 3D after it is finished.

Big Hollywood directors, including Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, are working on 3D projects. Following Dreamworks' lead, Disney's Pixar has announced that all future animation films, starting with "Up," will be in 3D. Monsters was released earlier than planned in order not to compete with Cameron's much anticipated Avatar, a 3D movie that is scheduled to open in December.

Despite its size, Nvidia is proving to be a worthy opponent for Intel. It recently hired Bill Dally, one of Stanford University's top computer science professors, as its new chief scientist. The move will bolster Nvidia's shift from gaming to what it calls visual computing. Dally was hired not long after Nvidia CEO Jen-Huang announced that the company would increase research spending in 2009 as it continues to challenge its Silicon Valley rivals. Dally was chairman of Stanford's computer science department. He and his team are credited with developing the technology that is used in most large parallel computers today. "I am thrilled to welcome Bill to Nvidia at such a pivotal time for our company," said Huang. "His pioneering work in stream processors at Stanford greatly influenced the work we are doing at Nvidia today. As one of the world's founding visionaries in parallel computing, he shares our passion for the GPU's evolution into a general purpose parallel processor and how it is increasingly becoming the soul of the new PC. His reputation as an innovator in our industry is unrivaled."

Editor's Choice: Silicon Valley IT salaries buoyant

Despite the recession, IT salaries are still high in Silicon Valley and London. In the Bay Area, software development managers were paid the most, at $136,000 per year.