The discussion centers around the alleged die shot of the upcoming 8-16 core Intel "Ivy Bridge" processor, which is reportedly a shrink of the Sandy Bridge architecture from 32nm to 22nm. While some sources validate the image's legitimacy, there is uncertainty about its authenticity. Ivy Bridge is not considered a new micro-architecture, unlike future architectures like Haswell and Rockwell, which are expected to introduce significant changes. Concerns are raised about the industry's reliance on increasing core counts to enhance performance, reminiscent of the pre-dual core era when clock speeds were pushed to their limits. There is skepticism regarding the practical application of 16-core processors, as most current software, particularly PC games, may not effectively utilize such power. Instead, tasks like HD video encoding and CAD could benefit more from additional cores. The discussion also highlights the growing trend of offloading CPU tasks to GPUs, which possess superior computational capabilities.
