Hasta La Gadget!

Just when we thought Intel’s yet-to-release six-core Core i9 would be the future, the silicon giant drops the bomb yet again with more multi-core madness — the experimental 48-core Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC), a.k.a. Rock Creek. While it looks like Intel still has a long way from their 80-core target in 2011, this bad boy packs an impressive 1.3 billion transistors on a 45nm fabrication, but sucks up just 125 watts which is a far cry from Core i9’s 130 watts. Intel’s stated that their main goal is to use SCC’s parallel computation — a field where high clock speed isn’t necessary — to enhance gesture control. Sounds familiar? Yes, it was Toshiba’s SpursEngine, but there’s no harm in having a new contender for the challenge. You go, girl!