Intel researchers at the company's lab in Barcelona are using a prototype of a single chip cloud computer to figure out how best to use a many-core chip in smartphones and tablets. (Photo: Sharon Gaudin / Computerworld)

Computerworld - Intel researchers are working on a 48-core processor for smartphones and tablets, but it could be five to 10 years before it hits the market.

"If we're going to have this technology in five to 10 years, we could finally do things that take way too much processing power today," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights and Strategy. "This could really open up our concept of what is a computer... The phone would be smart enough to not just be a computer but it could be my computer."

Enric Herrero, a research scientist at Intel Labs in Barcelona, said so far the lab has built a prototype of a 48-core chip designed to run different apps on different cores on a smartphone or tablet.

He explained that with many cores, someone could, for instance, be encrypting an email while also working on other power-intensive apps at the same time. It could be done today, but the operations might drag because they'd have to share resources.

Tanausu Ramirez, another Intel research scientist working on the 48-core chip, said that if someone was, for example, watching a high-definition video, a 48-core chip would be able to use different cores to decode different video frames at the same time, giving the user a more seamless video experience.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...phones_tablets