Submitted by “You know, it’s been nearly forty years since Intel introduced the first microprocessor, and even at this late date the company comprises a whopping eighty percent of the global market for CPUs. But not so fast! Like an electronics industry remake of The Magnificent Seven (which is, of course, an American remake of The Seven Samurai) NEC and Renesas have teamed up with a stalwart band of companies, including Hitachi, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic, and Canon, to develop a new CPU that is compatible with Waseda University professor Hironori Kasahara’s “innovative energy-saving software.” The goal is to create a commercial processor that runs on solar cells, moderates power use according to the amount of data being processed (a current prototype runs on 30% the power of a standard CPU), remains on even when mains power is cut, and, of course, upsets the apple cart over at Intel.”
Full story requires a subscription to Nikkei.com.
Anyone have access? Sounds like an interesting story.
Edited 2009-09-05 01:30 UTC
Another processor is certainly great news for anyone who wants to see more competition on market. So basicaly anyone except Intel and Arm-makers
.
Mobile market is growing very fast, so I am not supprised that more companies want to enter it.
It seems that major Japanese electronics company are starting to be fed up with ARM and x86 under this bad domestic economy. Hopefully they still maintain their current made in Japan architectures (SuperH, M32R).
I hope they can start promoting TRON standards (not only ITRON) again.
I hope that they don’t maintain them – what is required, to take on Intel and ARM is for the 7 companies to put their politics aside and standardise on one architecture to ensure there isn’t duplication and all focus by the 7 is put on that one direction.
The ISA is no longer dictates the direction of the underlying architecture – so there is nothing theoretically stopping them from designing a super duper optimised architecture and plonking a very common ISA ontop of it.
Renesas and NEC in progress of merging for several months is too sensational even for some Japanese. And making a grand co-operation with other companies is sort of unrealistic in this economy and with the complicated bureaucracy. (though that’s how I see it) We could also consider a new shift of industrial policies by the new Japanese government under the brand new leadership. Not to mention there are the strict patent issues for Japanese electronic products that could influence the decisions.
Regarding the overall factors, I wouldn’t expect too much. It’s too early to do this. Let’s hope that they wait until most of the companies are financially stable, then do the development.
Edited 2009-09-05 09:51 UTC
Intel has had to work on the double, has even canceled certain solutions in order to tackle the inminent advance of the ARM cpu into the [note/net/smart/x]book market regarding the abyssmal differences in power consumption of both architectures. Time is just right for another contender/s working from scratch on something so innovative as to get the giant running.
Creative’s Zii ? See http://www.zii.com/
Kochise
Maybe these players can take on Intel. Transmeta certainly failed miserably. And the thing I always thought was weird about that was that for years, we’d all been obsessing on how important processor power savings were in notebooks. But when Transmeta’s processors were released, a strange and popular new meme started circulating, which said that “everybody knows that the processor isn’t that important, because it’s the display that uses most of the energy”. Then, after Transmeta ceased to be a threat… it disappeared, and we all went back to obsessing on the percentage of time processors spend in various C states. Very odd. I wonder where such a meme could have come from?
Man, I don’t want a processor powered by nanoscale little men on nanoscale little bikes that can only move in 90 degree turns and leave semipermanant walls in their wake. What will they eat? Isn’t that slavery? Damn it man I want answers!
Well, at least you won’t have to worry about the 90 degree turns. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhN-4Oxmd-A
http://www.disney.com/tron
Edited 2009-09-05 20:53 UTC
Well they for sure wont have a major Desktop OS. So it will just be mobile. Apple wont go there and Microsoft wont. So all that is left is open source like Android.
I don’t see this going very far.
What makes you think Apple or Microsoft won’t get on board for their mobile offerings? Both companies have in the past shown willingness to change CPU vendors for various projects if doing so fits their needs. I see no inherent reason why a future iPhone or Zune couldn’t use this CPU if it lives up to its claims.h
If you can grab a decent chunk of the embedded and mobile market, then the Desktop market is irrelevant.
Apple is totally off the table because they bought a chip company and can now make their own chips. That in its self lowers costs and allows apple to control hardware schedules.
For Microsoft, using it in the Zune doesn’t really mean anything cause no one really buys Zunes. Not a big market. As for Windows Mobile that market is slowing also. Not sure if version 7 will pick up and I am not sure MS will port it again to another hardware platform.
This may get big in Asia. Maybe. But on Mobile ARM is king not Intel. So Intel will be fine. And this for sure will not mess with Intel’s desktop, laptop, netbook market.
If you’re not seeing Intel’s initial battles to get into ARM’s market, and the other way around, you should try taking a closer look.
Yes, the current offerings from intel focus on stuff like Netbooks, but look at Nokia’s new device, even Netbooks are still evolving.
ARM is trying to get into the Netbook market too, so yes, ARM and Intel trying to get in each others markets…
Mobile, wether your phone or your Netbook, is clearly the focus of most major silicon vendors atm…. wether it pans out to be “the next hot thing” might not be clear, but the battle has clearly started…..
There is really no battle.
On the netbook front people want a full OS, if that is the standard then MS has that market on intel.
Intel wants to steal market share from ARM based processors, no different then MS wants to steal market from Google. In reality Google is not hurting MS but MS is thinking ahead just like intel is.
I mean people keep talking about devices here there in everywhere. But without software to run the devices those markets can grow but so much. MS is the big dog on the block and they will never re port the full version of Windows to anything but x86 and x64.
Linux is not going to take any market share outside of Android. But it remains to be seen how large Android’s market share is going to become. Its not growing that fast. With Palm, MS and Apple out there it will be interesting to see how it all goes but I don’t see Intel having issues anytime soon.