Intel moving away from focus on clock speed
ITWorld.com article says
| Quote: |
| Intel Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Otellini served notice at the company’s recent developer conference that the megahertz era was coming to a close, and the decision Thursday to remove the 4GHz Pentium 4 processor from its road map is clear evidence that Intel has once and for all kicked its speed habit, according to industry analysts. |
This is going to be major signficance, especially for the software industry. Traditionally, software developers just kind of assumed that however inefficient the code is, Intel will bail us all out. This is going to put a premium on writing tighter code, as applications get ever more sophisticated and start taxing the CPU.
Not that current processors are slow by any reckoning. But the days of free riding on silicon improvements are coming to a close.
From an economic point of view, this may further accelerate the deflation in the computer industry. PCs are coming down to cell phone prices, and just like cell phones, may even start being given away with software or online subscriptions.