Intel stops the clock race
The fastest Intel processor is currently 3.6GHz. Larger on-chip memory and dual core designs combining two slower processors on one chip will drive future performance increases, it is believed. The 4GHz Pentium was due by the end of this year, but was delayed in August to early 2005.
The move is a further indication that CMOS technology scaling is breaking down. Scaling delivers smaller, faster devices. Also, until recently, part of scaling was an approximately constant power density Ð but no more. Leakage currents have been steadily increasing the heat dissipation, requiring the fan placed on top of microprocessors in the standard desktop PC.
One further aspect is that the processors are too fast for the memory Ð leading to wasted cycles as the processor waits for data to arrive. Why hurry doing nothing?
The engineers working on speed-ups are expected to be redeployed and no job losses are foreseen.
Moving the focus to other performance features could also benefit Intel in its dispute with the European Commission (Bulletin 556, October 15, 2004). There, the EC criticised government procurement agencies for specifying only clock speed (until now, IntelÕs preferred measure) rather than other performance features.
