High-profile developments on the processor landscape this year included aggressive multicore designs, research to put data centers on chip, and a surprise antitrust settlement between the dueling semiconductor vendors.
In picking the top processor stories of the past 12 months, it becomes obvious that 2009 was a transitional year for chipmakers. Clearly, the settlement by Intel and AMD of their ongoing antitrust and patent/licensing disputes was the single biggest business story.
On the technical front, there were significant architectural advances--including aggressive multicore designs, low-power CPUs, and research to put data-center-class power on a single chip. Intel unveiled Nehalem and AMD launched Istanbul. Still, it appears to this observer that the best is yet to come, as advanced graphics capabilities are woven more tightly into processors and platforms.
More: More: http://infoworld.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222001751&cid=nl_tw_software_2009-12-15_h
In picking the top processor stories of the past 12 months, it becomes obvious that 2009 was a transitional year for chipmakers. Clearly, the settlement by Intel and AMD of their ongoing antitrust and patent/licensing disputes was the single biggest business story.
On the technical front, there were significant architectural advances--including aggressive multicore designs, low-power CPUs, and research to put data-center-class power on a single chip. Intel unveiled Nehalem and AMD launched Istanbul. Still, it appears to this observer that the best is yet to come, as advanced graphics capabilities are woven more tightly into processors and platforms.
More: More: http://infoworld.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222001751&cid=nl_tw_software_2009-12-15_h