Microsoft, Intel combine in parallel
INTEL and Microsoft have partnered with two top research universities in the US to accelerate the improvements in mainstream parallel computing performance.
The companies say they will focus on solutions for both consumers and business markets, and that the work would look at both desktop and mobile computing.
Intel and Microsoft said the collaboration would create two Universal Parallel Computing Research Centres (UPCRC) located at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
Parallel computing brings together advanced software and processors that have multiple cores or engines, which when combined can handle multiple instructions and tasks simultaneously.
Although Microsoft, Intel and others deliver hardware and software capable of handling dual- and quad-core PCs today, in the coming years computers are likely to have even more processors inside them.
“Intel has already shown an 80-core research processor, and we’re quickly moving the computing industry to a many-core world,” Intel Research director and Corporate Technology Group vice-president Andrew Chien said.
The collaboration hoped to achieve long-term breakthroughs that would enable “dramatic new applications” for mainstream users.
“We think these new applications will have the ability to efficiently and robustly sense and act in our everyday world with new capabilities: rich digital media and visual interfaces, powerful statistical analyses and search, and mobile applications,” Chien said.
“Ultimately, these sensing and human interface capabilities will bridge the physical world with the virtual.”
The companies have contributed US$20 million (A$22.3 million), while the universities added a further US$15 million to the project.
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