Computer recently produced a specia

Computer recently produced a special issue on
“Billion-Transistor Architectures.”1 The first three articles
discussed problems and trends that will affect future
processor design. Seven articles from academic research
groups proposed microprocessor architectures and
implementations for billion-transistor chips. These proposals
covered a wide architecture space, ranging from
out-of-order designs to reconfigurable systems. At about
the same time, Intel and Hewlett-Packard presented the
basic characteristics of their next-generation IA-64 architecture,
which is expected to dominate the high-performance
processor market within a few years.2