I/O Acceleration Technology looks like another technology Intel may be introducing in order to sell more silicon. However, there are in fact several applications that definitely burden the processor(s) with a lot of calculations that could be performed much more efficient with specialized engines. Three very common applications are TCP packaging for network traffic, iSCSI packaging into the TCP protocol for SAN applications, and SSL decryption/encryption. Intel's approach is to provide an I/O accelerator that could be placed onto dedicated hardware. Although these components are already available - TCP and iSCSI packaging done by offload engines, for example - Intel may want to offer a single-chip solution that is fast and flexible. No details have been disclosed yet, however.

Final Thoughts

It is pretty obvious that Intel is increasing the pace of development wherever it is possible. Lots of multi-core processors are coming, and at IDF one begins to realize what the platform approach really means. Features such as Intel's Virtualization Technology and the Advanced Management Technology work hand in hand; RAID 5 support for SATA devices can finally be implemented due to sufficient processing power; I/O accelerators will be coming to widen the bottlenecks of external interfaces, and more.

The theory that Intel is trying to divert attention from the status of their multi-core projects by drowning the audience in information will never be provable. On the one hand it is unlikely that Intel would talk about so many products if they really were far away. On the other hand, after two days of IDF we felt like it did not make much of a difference whether some of the announced things were on track or slightly behind. AMD currently provides the fastest PC processor, but how important is this for the average user? Is it really about performance any more?

We say it is not. Intel is not going to sell products based on sheer speed alone, but rather because of what these technologies directly enable us to do. It's simply fascinating to consider what future systems might be capable of. Eventually, the new features Intel has shown us could mean that Intel powered solutions will dominate, whether or not competitors have faster chips.