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Montalvo Systems Planning Cell like Processor

It works like an Intel chip, but looks like the Cell processor. That's one way of describing the energy-efficient multiple core processors being devised by secretive Montalvo Systems. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has come up with a design for a chip for portable computers and devices that--when finished and manufactured--will theoretically be capable of running the same software as chips from Intel or Advanced Micro Devices.

By merging asymmetrical cores onto the same piece of silicon, Montalvo can cut power consumption by dishing applications that don't require a lot of computing firepower onto less-powerful, more energy-efficient cores. Applications could conceivably also be shuttled to low-power cores after their need for high-performance elapses: Microsoft Outlook, for instance, requires a burst of performance during the launch phase but far less once it's running.

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Posted by | Fri, Feb 15, 2008 - 07:09 AM