Newsmaker: Intel eyes the future of Itanium

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In terms of the structure of the transistor, we've already been talking about changing to a tri-gate structure, changing the physical structure to have better control as well as to have a surface area for the leakage. We're looking to make changes. That's one of our key research areas over the next couple of generations. We're good at 45 (nanometers), not likely to change at 32, but beyond that it's pretty likely we'll look at a new structure.

You've talked a lot about power and environmental factors in the data center. What's Intel doing?
Gelsinger: We've been doing a lot as a company ever since (Intel co-founder) Gordon Moore; he had a penchant in this direction. We plan our own operations in terms of environmental efficiency; we sponsor a lot of initiatives in the industry, and obviously our energy-efficient product line has been a big deal for us.

How well is the move to more efficient computing going?
Gelsinger: You need metrics to measure it. Like any of these kinds of things there's lie, lies and benchmarks. We've worked on SpecPower, vConsolidate, Ecomark, which have all been important efforts for us in defining how things work. We've had a good success with a number of the big data centers and started on our own operations. What we've seen is this incredible densification of the data center, and it's led to the compute space being compressed by something of the order of 20 times over the past decade.

The developing world isn't as far behind as you might think.

Generally, the thermal envelopes have gone down by about two (times), but because the computing space is getting denser you're seeing almost 50 times the amount of power density. That's pretty stunning. Data center managers are putting 100 servers where they used to have 10, and the amount of compute you're getting in that space is typically two times what you had before, so with Moore's law and other microarchitectural improvements, the performance you're delivering is pretty stunning.

Where are the tools for power management?
Gelsinger: Intel wouldn't claim that we've solved all of those problems. But we're also working with the key OEMs, HP, IBM, and so on, as well as working directly with some key users, giving them our BKMs--our best-known methods--and applying them to their environments. You'll see a number of different announcements in the very near future, to put these ideas under a broader umbrella.

Are there major differences in data centers around the world?
Gelsinger: The developing world isn't as far behind as you might think. Their sophistication in planning and building their data centers is rapidly catching up to the mature markets, but there's still a gap. One unexpected key sign is that every one of the major emerging countries--Russia, India, Brazil and so on--has major high-performance computing projects as well as major megadata center efforts under way. You're seeing Baidu trying to position itself as the Google of China. You're seeing China and India putting petaflop programs in place to be in the front edge.

Why can't they leapfrog, as with communications, by taking everyone's best practices without their legacy?
Gelsinger: I don't see them leapfrogging at this time, but I see the five-year gap we used to expect become a much shorter gap in these scenarios, maybe a one- or two-year gap at this point. But they're coming on strong. It's amazing. You go and see a Baidu data center, and it's pretty impressive. But you look at India saying, "We're going to have a petaflop machine in 2008." That's pretty impressive for a country that not long ago wasn't even in the high-performance computing race, and they could be literally No. 2 or No. 3 in the world. They see the challenge in racing China as well as looking north, and both of those have brought a lot of impetus in installing IT infrastructures.

When do you see power becoming an important issue for smaller data centers, ones with handfuls of servers?
Gelsinger: If you're just talking 30 or 40 servers, then power's not that big a deal--only hundreds of dollars' difference per year. But people are environmentally concerned, so they're putting those priorities ahead of just the savings associated with them.

If I ran a Google data center I could be talking about millions of dollars of operational costs per year, plus as a company they're trying to position themselves at the front end as eco-friendly and environmentally conscious, as part of their corporate positioning, and I think you're going to see that trend increase.

We're seeing the digitization of industries. Amazon is becoming a retailer of mammoth proportions. Google's out to digitize the world. The environmental impacts of these data centers are increasingly concerning governments, as environmental issues become more important in general.  

Rupert Goodwins of ZDNet UK reported from London.

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having a future in digital

I've been useing a Desktop for six years..and I think that the lives of people can really revolve nicely around this technology..I might quess-"a digitized world"-a very difficult place for humans to manufacture..maybe this areticle by Intel has offered some resemblance in the technology world to the "Terminator" philosophy..somehow a "take-over" world would evolve in "electronic-archetecture"..
I think the ON-DIE Archecture that Intel give its customers a real place to be involved "independently" we choose from a sector of providers..the Community will choose its specifications and be LEADERS in the field..the WIN-WIN situation is a great place/the technology landscape/the ability to evelove in real aspects of having a Global World..
I think Intel has far [out distanced] some world markets with its philantrophy about Technology-Innovation-Wealth-general progess w/Intel seems a WIN-WIN Situation..
I quess then my perceptions of the article might just be more angled in this direction/as others move into their own ideas about useing a DIGITIZED World in the "web-design"/I think its a battle in the landscape..maybe the "Botanical" aspects realize themselves without attention to ON DIE Archetecture..so there you have the bend in the road..more like growing Herbs..less like growing a Rain Forest.