Microprocessor Of The Future: Tilera Chip – 10x Better Performance Than Intel’s?

Tilera has reassured again that its server chips with 100 core processors will deliver 10 times better performance than Intel’s best server chips. Yes, 10 times and that is what the startup is promising. They hope to challenge Intel that controls 90% of server chips market. If they succeed, we could be in for another phase of computing development. Why? Cloud based operations will be cheaper since the cloud operators will spend lesser energy, space and resources to get all the farms running. Of course, that cost savings will be felt in prices customers pay.

Current chips, says Tilera Chief Executive Officer Omid Tahernia, haven’t been able to keep pace with the requirements of giant server farms built by companies such as Google and Facebook. These data centers need to expand to handle growing e-mail, online video, and search traffic. Simply increasing the speed at which a processor handles instructions from software has its limits. That approach generates a lot of heat and requires expensive cooling systems. “Turning up the clock frequency has given us a great couple of decades, but it’s run out of juice,” says Tahernia, who joined the San Jose company in 2007 after a career at Motorola and Xilinx. “For the first time, the semi industry is in the way of progress.”

 

With 90% share of  server chip market, Intel controls prices and firms like Facebook, Amazon and Google spend  a lot in running these farms. If Tilera disrupts, it means we can get some of the services cheaper, including Facebook ad rate.

As Tilera makes progress, we are proud of the work of Prof Kunle Olukotun -a Nigerian professor in Stanford University who has played major role in developing software that enables these core processors to work seamlessly. In other words, Nigeria made a big contribution here.