March 2006

We just left the Intel Developer Forum Spring 2006 behind us. Several new technology and product developments were unveiled at the conference. Most notable and interesting to the embedded industry are Intel's next generation multi-core micro-architecture, Intel's Robson technology and the various initiatives that are being undertaken by Intel and the rest of the industry to lower power consumption in mobile computing applications.

In this month's issue you will also find our 3rd article on the COM Express value proposition - the renaissance of the SBC industry, the 3rd article on the COM Express specification - going deeper into the spec, and last but not least, a contributed article by Intel on migration to parallel software architectures in the embedded industry.

Enjoy the topics and articles in this issue and as always, send us your feedback.

Sincerely,
Kishan Jainandunsing
Editor-in-chief
COM Express Source

Intel Slashes OS Boot Up and Application Load Times with Robson

IDF Spring – Intel unveiled and demonstrated a caching method it calls Robson, which slashes application and data load times from a hard disk drive, as well as OS boot times and power consumption. Read on.

Intel Reveals Next Generation Multi-Core Micro-Architecture

IDF Spring – Intel revealed under-the-hood details of its next generation multi-core micro-architecture, called Intel Core. Read on.

Industry Pushes Extended Battery Life Initiatives

IDF Spring– Intel and partners push for extended battery life initiatives for mobile computing applications around Intel's x86 CPUs and chipsets. Read on.

COM Express Value Proposition - Part III

In this column we highlight monthly in a series of articles the value propositions of the COM Express standard. This month’s article is about how COM Express may bring about a rebirth of the SBC industry. Read on.

The COM Express Specification Explained - Part III

In this column we explain the COM Express specification in a series of tutorials. Last month we gave a high-level overview of the specification. This month we take a closer look at PCI Express link configurations, pin-outs and carrier board configuration EEPROM. Read on.

Migrating to Parallel Software Architectures in Embedded Markets

Embedded system developers are frequently challenged to design-in high-performance CPUs with ever-increasing power dissipation. Semiconductor manufacturers are responding with new multi-core processors with significantly improved raw compute performance and performance per watt. While these new processors provide significant form factor and performance opportunities, they pose some new software challenges. This article explores some scenarios related to migrating to a more parallel software architecture. Read on.