Intel's new instructions to Rockton round the clock

SO, YESTERDAY WE TOLD you about AMD and integrated PCIe, and that Intel had a bunch of goodies to compete with. One of them is called RT or Rockton Technology, another in the long line of *Ts. With clock speeds basically stalled, you have to do something with those transistors, and Rockton is one of the better ideas.

RT is basically managed code, Java and .NET, acceleration in mostly hardware, with some software assist too. On the hardware level, it is basically a new instruction set like MMX or SSE, specifically designed to help those things that Java does a lot. Like VT, the goal is to assist software by lessening the cost of common things, and adding a few new capabilities.

The software side is a little more complex. you notice I said Java and .NET, and while .NET is a Java knock-off, it has significant differences. When I was first told RT would speed up both, I figured the person was on crack, so I dug a little deeper. That is where the software side will come into full force.

Part of RT is a JIT compiler for whatever language you choose to run. Since .NET is mostly open-ish, that one should be fairly implementable, and a wad of cash to Microsoft will make it very implementable. The JVM is a little more complex a situation, and here is where the official INQ crystal magic eight ball gets a little hazy.

The problem with Java is that is there is no good open source implementation to work with, so from what I hear, and this part is hazy, Intel is going to work with the Apache people. Some say they will assist with an Apache JVM, others say Intel will buy one and give it to Apache, but either way, it looks like there appears to be an Apache based JVM as part of the deal.

So, this combo of hardware and software collectively called Rockton will be coming out in the not all that near future, and it should be baked into the Merom cores in one form or another from the start. When it will be finalised and activated is anyone's guess, but it should be worth a whopping amount on Java benches.

Now, this tale started out with PCI Express, and how Intel was behind there. AMD is behind on managed code acceleration by at least as much, probably more. The topic has been discussed at AMD, but is not currently slated for implementation in the immediate future. This may change, but for now RT is the only game in town. I can't wait to see how it plays out in the real world. As one mole said, "with this, why do you need an operating system anymore?". µ