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This video was produced by my pals in the technology labs. A simple video with a few snazzy edit tricks, featuring the real scientists describing the prototype 80-core chip.
Seeing this video again made me think about storytelling and storyselling. I think we’re all in love with great stories — maybe we can blame Homer! When we talk to people, we tell stories. When a PR professional pitches a story to a journalist, we sell a story. But what a journalist may really want are bite-sized storylines and materials they can use to craft an engaging story from their point of view. That last part is important.
Today, there is much debate about doing away with the press release as we know it. I’m enjoying this debate. Here is a pitch I created for the 80-Core Chip announcement in February 2007. This was intended to help TV, Radio and online journalists. Why can’t something like this also stand in the place of a press release? Maybe we’ll all read this here post in a few months/years and laugh out loud.
SUPERCOMUPTER ON CHIP FOR THE “ERA OF TERA”
- Intel researchers demonstrate a prototype 80-Core programmable processor delivering teraflops performance with remarkable energy efficiency.
- A “Teraflops” of computing performance stands for a Trillion FLating-point Operations Per Second
THE STORY
- The single 80-core chip delivers supercomputer-like performance and is not much larger than a fingernail, yet uses less electricity than most household appliances
- This 80-core research chip achieves a teraflops of performance while consuming less than 100 watts – (exact – significantly lower — watt consumption will be announced during the demonstration on 2/8)
- The ability of these chips to perform trillions of calculations a second will play a pivotal role in future computers, helping lead to real-time language translation and speech recognition, photo-realistic games, and even artificial intelligence
- Intel has no plans to bring this exact 80-core chip to market, but the company’s Tera-scale research is instrumental in investigating new innovations for making individual or specialized processors
- The prototype 80-core chips were first shown by Intel CEO Paul Otellini at the Intel Developers Forum in late 2006.
FUN, INFORMATIVE STORYLINE
- We see the auto industry racing to create energy efficient cars, but a group of scientists are on another fast track to drive down electricity and battery consumption of your next computer. Here’s more on the possibilities of a new research chip with 80 brains.
- It used be that need for speed was met with faster and faster computer chips. Well today, as we enter what computer engineers are calling “the era of tera,” it’s a completely different game.
- Energy efficiency has to be built into every chip we make. It’s essential!
- At a recent chip industry gathering in San Francisco, Intel researchers showed off a research prototype jam packed with 80-computer engines all on in a single chip. That’s a huge leap compared to what was possible a decade ago.
- This new research chip has about the same performance as the world’s first teraflop supercomputer that Intel built in 1996. That monster was the size of a house and ate up enough electricity to power a small town! Now a chip the size of your finger nail can provide same teraflops of performance consuming less power than your toaster.
Another analogy from our research team:
Today’s applications is like a new hire fresh from school.
- Need specific instructions
- Must be closely managed
- Decisions require approval
- Little or no network
- Handle limited workloads
- Must earn trust
- Limited impact
Tera-scale applications will behave like a seasoned professional
- Anticipate your needs
- Require little management
- Empowered to act
- Extensively networked
- Manage large workloads
- Trusted advisors
- Deliver solid results
INTEL CTO JUSTIN RATTNER’S BLOG at ZDNet
SOME TECH STORIES/BLOGS ABOUT INTEL’S 80-CORE RESEARCH
INTEL LINKS TO RELATED INFORMATION
Movin' Ahead 