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Go big or go home. That could be the company motto for Tilera, a Boston-based startup that makes the most gonzo processor you’ve probably ever seen.

Tilera’s new GX-100 chip contains one hundred – count ’em – identical microprocessors, each connected to the others though a massive terabit network. And these processors aren’t just wimpy little cores, either. They’re big 64-bit RISC machines, each with its own L1 and L2 caches, TLB, and 64-bit instruction set. Roughly speaking, each Tilera processor is about equivalent to a good PowerPC, MIPS, or Intel Xeon. In other words, a serious processor. In a big crowd of serious processors.

What would you do with this much horsepower in a single package? If you have to ask, this chip probably isn’t for you. Step aside, sonny, and let the real engineers do their work. But if your business card says Cisco, AT&T, Google, or Nokia, you probably have some good ideas about where this chip might fit. It’s aimed at high-end networking and telecommunications gear, products that have to massage a lot of data in record time.

Actually, that’s for real. Also the Internet-enabled lawn sprinkler, automobile, espresso maker, big-screen TV, and refrigerator. We think nothing of Internet-connected cell phones – in fact, we generally expect that feature – and Internet connections are de rigueur for video games, navigation systems, and retail point-of-sale terminals. Hell, what isn’t Internet-connected these days?

So how do you as an engineer actually connect all these seemingly unrelated embedded systems to the big wide Interweb? Slapping an Ethernet connection on the side of the box isn’t enough. You’ve also got to add TCP/IP software stacks, and drivers, and maybe some server-side code. Probably some security and intrusion-detection software, too.

The company has launched a new 32-bit chip that tops its range of ubiquitous microcontrollers. It’s got grown-up features that could entice the company’s legions of 8-bit and 16-bit users to move up into the 32-bit world and experience life in the semi-big leagues.

“Thirty-two bits for 5 bucks” could be the headline here, as the new chips combine a 32-bit MIPS M4K core – a processor for real men—with an average price of $5. As usual for Microchip, the device is crammed to overflowing with peripherals and interfaces for most conceivable applications. In this case, the key gee-whiz features are CAN (controller-area network), 10/100 Ethernet, and USB.

You could buy a large yacht – and a Caribbean island to moor it on. You could keep a lifetime supply of Ferraris for you and all of your newly found friends. You could acquire several small companies. You could settle into a dozen houses along the fairways at Pebble Beach, hitting balls through the windows all day. Or if you’re Intel, you write a big check to AMD. And if you’re AMD, you fritter it away in about 12 months.

By now you’ve heard about Intel’s big legal settlement with AMD, ending a longstanding lawsuit that’s been both bitter and strangely entertaining. The two companies have been fighting each other for years, both in the market and in the courtrooms. For now, at least, it looks as if they’ve buried the hatchet.

“Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.” Thus spake Albert Einstein, a man who knew a thing or two about big spaces and long stretches of time. Given a few more years, he might have made the same observation about Intel’s x86 processor family and its infinite attraction to programmers.

If I may indulge in another quotation, it’s been said that there are two kinds of programmers: those who admit they hate the x86, and liars. Nobody really likes programming x86-family processors, at least nobody I’ve ever met who’d worked with any other chip family.

If there were a god of microprocessor design, She would have smitten Intel long ago for creating such an abomination. The entire family tree comes from a bad seed, bearing the taint of the original 8086 and its spawn. Strong men weep, children faint, and wolves chew their own legs off rather than program x86 chips in assembly language. The sight of too much x86 code has been known to drive men mad. Its importation is limited in some countries. Humanitarian efforts bring aid to countless victims. International talks proceed quietly behind the scenes to ban its use and manufacture. Yet stockpiles exist to this day. Stop the madness!

Contrary to popular belief, Intel makes just two percent of the world's microprocessor chips.

Surprised? You wouldn't be if you worked with us.

You read it every day in the press: Intel has 90-something percent share of the microprocessor market.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Although it's true that Intel supplies 90-odd percent of the microprocessor chips used in PCs, the larger reality is that PCs are only a small percentage of global consumption of microprocessor chips. Even if Intel controlled 100% of the PC market (and there were no AMD or other competitors), it would still command only 2-3 percent fo the total microprocessor market.

Intel is a very big fish in a small pond, you might say.

So what about the other 98% of microprcoesor chips? Where do they go, who buys them, and who supplies them? The overwhelming majority of microprocessor and micrcontroller chips manufactured every year go into something other than a PC. This is known as the "embedded" market, mean these chips are embedded into products other that aren't PCs. That's a lot of chips to ignore. Intel has relatively little presence in the embedded market; it is one among many players. Instead, dozens of other semiconductor companies occupy that market space.

Remember, we're talking about unit volume, not revenue. Intel's chips are extraordinarily profitable, so the company's small 2% unit volume equates to a large slice of the revenue pie. Embedded microprocessor chips are comparatively inexpensive, so they generate less revenue individually but more in total. How much more? Give us a call and let's discuss it.