Platform 2015: Intel ® Processor and Platform Evolution for the Next Decade

Summary This article and the accompanying paper has outlined an ambitious vision which, in some respects, is a wide departure from present-day processors and platforms. But in reality, this vision is based on a continued evolution of Intel’s drive for increased parallelism, and our proven investment, research, development, manufacturing and unparalleled ecosystem enabling capability that, when taken together, will continue to lead us into an era of more powerful, versatile and efficient processing engines and platforms containing those engines. Ultimately, this evolution is driven by usage—what people want from technology and what they do with it. And though no one can precisely predict the future course of technology, the developments now underway point to some likely outcomes. Based on current requirements and trends, we at Intel believe that processor and platform architecture needs to move toward a virtualized, reconfigurable CMP architecture with a large number of cores, a rich set of built-in processing capabilities, large on-chip memory subsystem and sophisticated microkernel. This architectural evolution, delivered with volume computing economics and an adherence to maintaining compatibility with thousands of already existing applications, will ensure that Intel processors and platforms will continue to power a breathtaking array of sophisticated new applications over the coming years, transforming business and daily life in ways we can only begin to imagine.