It’s a brave new world for next generation processors

I'm going to make a wild prediction. Soon, Intel will bring out a new processor that is NOT 50% faster and 50% lower power than the last one. Yes, it's true. Unbelievable as it may seem, that's my prediction. I predict that the next Core processor will ONLY be 25% faster and 25% lower power. This will, of course, set off near panic in what's left the PC processing world. The end is near for Mr. Moore's law.

I'm so used to Intel upping the stakes with every new Core CPU release. I just expect it. So, of course I was shocked. Intel's recently announced Haswell Core processor, which is at 22 nm and uses Tri-gate 3-D transistors, actually didn't really provide much of a performance boost at all. Just somewhere around 10% — at most. It had to happen someday.

The way Intel put this was interesting. “The 4th generation Intel Core vPro processors are up to 2x faster for business productivity applications over 4-year-old systems.” That's one way to look at it I guess. The really interesting thing is that nobody cares. You see, PCs have gotten fast enough. Everyone is totally happy with their machines (except the gamers, of course). We don't need any more speed. Lower power, yes, always, but not higher speed. It's a brave new world.

Intel has addressed a lot of other stuff with this 4th-generation Core family, including graphics performance (yes, another big step up for integrated graphics) and security. And, the lower power chips means ultrabook laptops can be fanless by running at a scenario design point (SDP) of 4.5 W. The new 1.4-GHz Core i5-4200Y version has a max thermal design power (TDP) of 11.5 W and SDP of 6 W — with 4.5-W versions coming soon. Other versions of Haswell go as high as 84-W TDP.

SDP is said to be an operational profile representitive of a tablet computer. MacBook Air laptops with Haswell are expected in September with the slim 13-in. display model boasting of an incredible 12-hour battery life.

Meanwhile, the semiconductor industry overall is going along nicely. International Data Corp. raised its worldwide semiconductor revenue forecast for the year and projected further growth for 2014, as demand for smartphones and tablets remain strong. IDC expects worldwide semiconductor revenue to improve 6.9% to $320 billion this year. The company raised that from a prediction of 3.5% in May. The market researcher also forecast semiconductor revenues to be up another 2.9% in 2014.

Intel chips are in a lot of embedded apps, of course. But, over in the other corner, it seems as though ARM CPU cores are taking over embedded processing. Every MCU maker has 'em. Oh no! I was just imagining that ARM had placed a disable command in every processor it's ever produced (let's start a rumor). And, they have a switch in Cambridge that they can throw any time they like and shut 'em all down. The European Union better not try pushing ARM around like they do Google and Microsoft. No sir. Do it and they'll throw the switch .