Challenges and trends in processor design

Chip architects from Sun, Cyrix, Motorola, Mips, Intel and Digital see challenges rather than walls in microprocessor design. They share their insights in this virtual roundtable. Tremblay discusses the conflicting goals of improving how much work a processor does per cycle and at the same time shortening the cycle time. Grohoski says we need to reduce the processor complexity to spend less time debugging that complexity. Burgess thinks tightly interwoven designs will better support focused applications. Killian is confident the industry will solve foreseeable problems. He sees "big data" problems as key design drivers. Colwell sees a convergence of factors that make validation a big concern. He foresees future computers as communication enhancement devices. Rubinfeld names five issues as important to processor design and discusses some challenges specific to high-speed processor design. Despite the competitiveness of their field, these six architects shared several insights of interest to those not intimately connected with processor design.