Intel's latest chip tech in action

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    At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the chipmaker showed off its latest technology.

    It's IDF, so of course there must be a wafer shot. This is Sandy Bridge, the company's new flagship mainstream 32nm x86 processor, most notable for integrated graphics and the promise of high performance. This is the second 32nm processor family from Intel — the 'tock' of the 'tick-tock' cadence — so next up will be the 'tick' of 22nm, Ivy Bridge.

    For more on the tech at IDF, see our look at the tech at IDF.

    Photo by: Rupert Goodwins

    Caption by: Rupert Goodwins

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    An intriguing piece of hardware, this is part of a quad-Knights Ferry system that Intel had configured to play a raytraced, real-time version of the game Wolfenstein 3D.

    The system runs at 1 teraflop, and delivers its video to any device capable of streaming video from the internet. The purpose of this board is unknown: an Intel employee spotted it being photographed and told ZDNet UK off.

    Photo credit: Rupert Goodwins

    Caption by: Rupert Goodwins

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    A screen from the Knights Ferry system running Wolfenstein 3D. The quality of the video is extremely good, with lashings of the hyperreal atmosphere that good raytraced graphics possess.

    Although this can be displayed on almost any device — mobile or desktop — the experimental system only scales to multiple players through addition of more Knights Ferry massively multicore CPUs.

    Photo credit: Rupert Goodwins

    Caption by: Rupert Goodwins

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    It's IDF, so of course there must be a fuel cell. This time, though, the only one on show was part of a much bigger test rig, designed to show off the idea of a laptop running from a wide range of voltage sources.

    Here, batteries, fuel cells and solar power are combined through a circuit that pulls as much power from each before powering the laptop circuit — something Intel thinks important, especially for developing countries with poor and very mixed power supplies available.

    Photo credit: Rupert Goodwins

    Caption by: Rupert Goodwins

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    Here are Intel's brand-new silicon photonics, on display and working. Here, the transmitter on the right is feeding 50Gbps to the receiver on the left, all through chips that have the optical and the electrical components integrated on the same pieces of silicon.

    Intel executives were resolutely silent when asked when this would be available in commercial products.

    Photo credit: Rupert Goodwins

    Caption by: Rupert Goodwins

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A look at the chipmaker's Sandy Bridge chip, Knights Ferry being put through its paces for a raytraced, a real-time version of Wolfenstein 3D and a silicon photonics setup

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At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, the chipmaker showed off its latest technology.

It's IDF, so of course there must be a wafer shot. This is Sandy Bridge, the company's new flagship mainstream 32nm x86 processor, most notable for integrated graphics and the promise of high performance. This is the second 32nm processor family from Intel — the 'tock' of the 'tick-tock' cadence — so next up will be the 'tick' of 22nm, Ivy Bridge.

For more on the tech at IDF, see our look at the tech at IDF.

Caption by: Rupert Goodwins

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Processors Hardware Intel ARM Artificial Intelligence Innovation

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