Essential role of latest technology microprocesser highlighted in natural disaster prevention and management

40 years ago, Intel Corporation introduced the world's first commercially available microprocessor - the Intel® 4004 - triggering the start of the digital revolution. While most people have never seen a microprocessor, devices that contain them have become so integrated into daily life that they have become virtually indispensable.

Microprocessors are the "brains" inside computers, servers, phones, cars, cameras, refrigerators, radios, TVs and many other everyday devices. The proliferation of microprocessors is the result in large part of Intel's relentless pursuit of Moore's Law that says that roughly every two years transistor density of semiconductors will double, while increasing functionality and performance and decreasing costs. It has become the basic business model for the semiconductor industry for more than 40 years.

Compared with the Intel 4004 for example, today's second-generation Intel® Core™ processors produce more than 350,000 times the performance and each transistor uses about 5,000 times less energy. In these same four decades, the price of a transistor has dropped by a factor of about 50,000.

Future microprocessors developed with Intel's next-generation 22nm manufacturing process are due in systems starting 2012 and will deliver even more energy-efficient performance as a result of the company's breakthrough 3-D Tri-Gate transistors that make use of new transistor architecture. These novel transistors usher in the next era of Moore's Law and make possible a new generation of innovations across a broad spectrum of devices.

"The sheer number of advances in the next 40 years will equal or surpass all of the innovative activity that has taken place over the past 10,000 years of human history," said Accharas Ouysinprasert, Country Manager, Intel Microelectronics (Thailand) Ltd.

Such advances in chip technology are paving the way for an age when computing systems will be aware of what is happening around them, and anticipate people's needs. This capability is poised to fundamentally change the nature of how people interact with and relate to information devices and the services they provide. Future context-aware devices ranging from PCs and smartphones to automobiles and televisions will be able to advise people and guide them through their day in a manner more like a personal assistant than a traditional computer.

Significant Role of Microprocessor during Natural Disaster

Here in Thailand, flooding and its often devastating consequences have been the focus of everyone's attention. Effective future flood prevention and flood management efforts are of course a priority, and it is here that innovative technology is making use of the microprocessor to dramatic effect.

Intel researchers have developed a special cloud-based architecture "Distributed Scene Graph" disaster simulation model that provides rich 3-D visualisation in a game-like format to allow scientists and flood management specialists to explore a whole range of virtual scenarios, making it possible to effectively plan preventative and management measures with a new degree of cost-effectiveness and accuracy. The software allows thousands of people to participate in a simulated disaster scenario with the virtual experience helping communities understand what is likely to happen on a large scale while demonstrating for example, the life-saving value of low cost sensors and accurate environmental intelligence.

For Disaster Warning, Response and Preparedness Intel researches also focused on continuous sensing that bring to lives the role that real-time, low-cost sensors can play in disaster management from the battery assisted RFID tag used for automatic vehicle identification that provide vital data for routing and evacuation planning to water quality sensor designed to sense 16 parameters of chemical condition.

Finally, a common challenge in disaster areas is the availability of the reliable network connectivity due to damage of traditional network power. However, Intel's platform has been tested in a variety of hostile environments and is designed for quick and easy deployment to provide Internet-like service where there is no or limited Internet connectivity and lack of power. The mobile access point, for example, runs on low-power Intel®Atom™ processor and supports a variety of services including email server, web server and delay tolerant networking.

Facts about Microprocessor

• The first microprocessor Intel® 4004's speed, when compared with the latest generation transistors, is like comparing the speed of a snail (5 meters per hour) with the speed of the Kenyan runner Patrick Makau Musyoki in his record-breaking marathon run (42,195 metres at 2:03:38 hours or an average of 20,6 km/h last month in Berlin).

• Today, the average annual energy cost to power a modern laptop is about EUR 25. (BAHT 1025)If the energy consumption had remained unchanged since 1971, today's laptops would consume 4,000 times more energy and cost about EURO 100,000 (BAHT 410,000) per year.

• The die of the 4004 processor consisted of 2,300 transistors. The current 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor has almost one billion transistors.

• The current Intel Core processor has 995 million transistors. If each transistor were a grain of rice, it would be enough to prepare a rice meal for some 567,000 people.

• More than 6 million 22nm tri-gate transistors could fit in the period at the end of this sentence.