Seven Japanese chipmakers to challenge Intel, AMD

[zollen]

Not content with the American domination of the CPU industry, seven of Japan's dominant processor designers and manufacturers have teamed up to create a revolutionary new microprocessor.

The coalition is led by the NEC and Renesas merger, which makes them world's third largest chipmaker. Joining them is Hitachi, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic and Canon. A dizzying crowd of electronic giants, indeed.

They intend to create a commercial CPU that runs on power cells, uses power based on the amount of data processed and remains switched on even during power cuts. A current prototype is reported to be running at 30% the power of current CPUs.

This new standard, along with the CPU, will be introduced in 2012. And it is not just PCs - derivatives of the processor will be designed for an entire range of consumer electronics.

Even if the Seven Samurai product does end up largely more than attractive than Intel or AMD CPUs, the transition from x86 will no doubt take years, as it takes time for support and software to build up for a new platform. Nevertheless, this might just be the future of computing. That has probably been said before, but when seven of Japan's largest electronic giants come together, surely, they mean business.

Reference: Engadget

[rashid204]

seven samurai project? didnt everyone die at the end of that movie ? not the best choice in naming

[Kell-Ate It]

Originally Posted by rashid204

seven samurai project? didnt everyone die at the end of that movie ? not the best choice in naming

The apocalypse is coming! Some interesting competition for intel/amd if it could survive.

[rashid204]

i dont see them posing much of a threat unless they develop a chip in the x86 architecture. but that power based on process thing sounds pretty amazing. could really hit atoms

[zollen]

I would never underestimate Japanese innovations.

[rashid204]

yeah thats true, after tamagotchi came out i knew never to **** with the japanese.

[capitan182]

Originally Posted by rashid204

yeah thats true, after tamagotchi came out i knew never to **** with the japanese.

LOL NICE!!!

[Nathan L.]

Originally Posted by rashid204

yeah thats true, after tamagotchi came out i knew never to **** with the japanese.

so true!!

[Fr0sty]

toshiba wasnt in some sort of alliance with IBM and amd allready????

[crazytrain]

yep see link.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/18/t...e-32-nm-devil/
its an old post from 2007.
should be interesting if they do anything about it considering intel has already produced a 32nm processor called Westmere.

[Espion]

Originally Posted by zollen

the transition from x86 will no doubt take years, as it takes time for support and software to build up for a new platform.

Normally if just one company came out with the new product yes... but this is a majority of major japanese electronics companies. The amount of combined influence they have in the industry, especially in the asian market, should speed this up a lot.

[Bryanvaldez1]

Originally Posted by rashid204

yeah thats true, after tamagotchi came out i knew never to **** with the japanese.

lmao

10 char

[Errectus]

its good to hear but i would think nvidia would be more likely to get an x86 cpu on the market.... i know they are/were trying to...but the more the merrier

[ashbornangel]

they're YEARS ahead of us

[WiCKeD]

So let's see... seven mega-corporations with countless levels of bureaucracy, competing visions, starting from scratch, trying to catch up to 31 years of research, zero marketshare and in the end they would only have to convince the entire world to dump their perfectly good computers for something that runs on power cells?

Sure that will happen!

[levathar]

This seems terrific to me, imagine a laptop that needs no battery?
I can't really imagine a better aplication for such chip than this.
And it will be a winner!

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by WiCKeD

So let's see... seven mega-corporations with countless levels of bureaucracy, competing visions, starting from scratch, trying to catch up to 31 years of research, zero marketshare and in the end they would only have to convince the entire world to dump their perfectly good computers for something that runs on power cells?

Sure that will happen!

Yea, I can't wait to invest!

Edit:

From Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=seven...ient=firefox-a

Seven Samurai

Grizedale Arts invited us to join 5 other 'Samurai artists' for a month long residency, based in the remote village of Toge in rural north-west Japan. The project was inspired by the famous Kurosawa film of the same title, and we were given the brief of 'being useful' to Toge village in some way, a position somewhat in opposition to the context of the international art Triennial that we were part of. In many ways Toge can be seen as similar to Grizedale a remote rural community where the village elders are concerned about the demise of farming and how to keep the community alive in the future. We later developed a longer term project extending beyond our time in the village, and potentially provide the villagers with an income stream and 'souvenir product'.

Whilst in Toge we worked on several live and joint projects: developing rice label designs & production for Toge village 'single estate' independent rice production, and performing for Nobutai (Snow Centre) and the opening party of EchigoTsumari Triennale & Ikebukero Festival in Tokyo. We opened up the house and kitchen to the village with a group 'exhibition', and during the last week more or less ran a permanent open house and communal 'fusion cooking' facility. Our own projects started with the short film A Cottage in the Country and the Shields of Toge drawing workshop with the women of the village, looking to the future of their tiny community. We later developed three further projects: Little Deluxe Living is a short film (15 mins) about our time in Japan with the women of Toge & two men we meet David Tate and Karl Bengs. David is the founder of Lilliput Lane in Cumbria and a passionate advocate of British vernacular architecture. Karl is an emigre German craftsman/designer who has devoted his working life to saving traditional Japanese homes building his own utopian village across the valley from Toge.

Titchy/Kitschy builds on this relationship with Lilliput Lane and looks to question the value of such 'souvenir products' (and by extension tourism) in the push to transform declining farming areas into tourist centers. We commissioned Lilliput Lane staff to produce a pair of models depicting Grizedale Art's base (a traditional Cumbrian stone barn/cottage) and the oldest house in Toge - one of the few remaining 'authentic' thatched buildings in the area. Now completed these models have been produced as an artists initial edition of 21, a 'prototype product' for the village to produce (the artists edition are available for sale from Grizedale and the village)

The Honesty Tables first shown as part of our installation for the Northern Art Prize these tables sell produce from Toge & Lawson Park as well as providing a chance for local producers to sell there own products from the space where the work is exhibited. Click here for 'somewhere: the honesty table' website

Work from this project was shown as part of Virtually Grizedale at the A Foundation for the 2006 Liverpool Biannual, and in 2007 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The project was completed for the Northern Art Prize and is documented at the somewhere: Seven Samurai website. The Seven Samurai Project is documented at the Grizedale Arts - Seven Samurai website. Reviews of the Northern Art prize can be seen at the The Guardian and Yorkshire Post websites.

http://www.rca.ac.uk/Default.aspx?Co...tegoryID=36283

[_MtM_]

Originally Posted by davidhammock200

Yea, I can't wait to invest!

They are targeting a diffrent market, one in which they are not dependant on others much if at all. Those seven combined are a force to be reckoned with.

ed: in short - if i had any money I wouldn't be so biased to dismiss this as an potential investment target.. Well that if I could invest in a to be formed conglamoration only geared towards this chip, I would not invest in each single company on it's own that would be stupid imo.

[davidhammock200]

Originally Posted by _MtM_

They are targeting a diffrent market, one in which they are not dependant on others much if at all. Those seven combined are a force to be reckoned with.

ed: in short - if i had any money I wouldn't be so biased to dismiss this as an potential investment target.. Well that if I could invest in a to be formed conglamoration only geared towards this chip, I would not invest in each single company on it's own that would be stupid imo.

I think Wicked hit the nail on its head, it would be almost like starting over. Unless these are so powerful that they can run X86 apps in VM as fast as a Core 2, I don't see much market in the conventional PC or server markets.

[_MtM_]

This isn't for desktop/server market but for integrated circuits in consumer electronics. Think a smart fridge which can order through the net if the 'stock' is to low, or appliances like coffee machines which 'sense' you're coming out of the bad and getting ready for a nice cup or something. Ok maybe taken abit to far hehe but you get the point I recon.

They can not target x86 at this moment, they can target the markets they are already involved with and introduce new tech there which can 'eventually' enable them to switch over to trying to target x86/amd64 but that's not the intrest expressed in the article as I read it.

Might be me though, and might be that I'm automaticly disgarding some of the article as being sensationalist and geared towards attracting readers.

Think about it, would they be as stupid as you think when the current economy is already creating heaps of problems for them?

ed: engadget's text is not clear about anything, and I haven't heard anything from anyone who posses a subscription for the source site so I really think the comments are misplaced abit as engadget made a short paragraph which they treid to make as compelling as possible, this does not mean the entire article ( source ) is represented correctly, far from it.