4th Gen Intel Core processor may be biggest thing in the last three years for embedded computing

Posted by John Keller

THE MIL & AERO BLOG, 11 June 2013. Few recent events in the military embedded computing industry have hit with the impact of the 2010 introduction of the Intel Core microprocessor architecture, which offered on-chip floating-point processing capability.

Still, the introduction last week of the 4th generation Intel Core microprocessor could be a close second. While Intel's introduction three years ago gave aerospace and defense systems designers one of the things they wanted most -- floating point processing -- last week's fourth-generation introduction offers designers something they also dearly love -- a reduction in size, weight, and power consumption (SWAP).

While floating-point three years ago offered the military important capabilities for digital signal processing, the fourth-generation Intel Core's introduction last week puts SWAP front and center of future aerospace and defense embedded computing.

Essentially the latest-generation Intel Core processor offers military systems designers a triple-punch of floating-point processing, ultra-high-performance conventional processing, and the latest in high-performance embedded parallel processing, which some in the industry call HPEPP.

In addition to advanced floating-point processing, the fourth-generation Intel Core processing has an on-chip general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) that military designers use as a high-performance embedded massively parallel processing engine.

Related stories -- 4th Gen Intel Core processor raises the bar for high-performance embedded parallel processing -- Intel i7 microprocessor set to produce a tectonic shift in military embedded computer industry -- Intel keeps hold on embedded applications with latest processor.

Extensive floating-point and parallel processing features offer aerospace and defense systems integrators unprecedented capability for digital signal processing in demanding applications like radar processing, signals intelligence, electronic warfare, and networked sonar signal processing.

Still, the benefits of the chip don't end there. The fourth-generation Intel core microprocessor is built with 22-nanometer processing capability, which means the chip packs huge capability into a relatively small package that reduces power consumption over previous generations.

Big processing, small size, and low power consumption will offer capability never seen before for future generations of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), tiny land robots, and soldier-worn sensors, networking, and signal processing.

Just how big a deal the fourth-generation Intel Core microprocessor will be remains to be seen, but those in the embedded computing industry are more excited about this announcement than they've been in quite a while.