It's hard to catch your breath when following Intel. Barely a day goes by without a new technology or product coming to market.

There is a huge amount of coverage this week for Intel's new flagship processor for the desktop market - the  Core i7 980x Extreme.

The incredible thing about this particular piece of silicon is that it has 6 cores and hyperthreading technology to virtualise twelve cores. Twelve cores! It seems like yesterday that we were talking about dual core processors! The chip takes advantage of Intel's 32-nanometre process - packing in 1.17 billion transistors, with a clock speed of 3.3 Ghz.

The challenge now is for software developers to catch up with the pace of hardware change. It's no exaggeration to say that Intel's hardware is forcing a complete re-write of how developers approach programming.

Right now, there is some inevitable lag between hardware advancement and software able to take advantage of these changes - you can't simply boot up Windows 7 and Firefox on a machine running a Core i7 980x Extreme and expect it to run faster.

But if you work in the fields of video and photo editing then this new processor will make your life easier as tools like Adobe Photoshop can take advantage of the increase in threads. And what you will see is a 50% improvement in performance, according to benchmarks.

So what can be done to reduce that lag, especially when software typically lags hardware development by three to five years?

Well, Intel has a software developer program with tens of thousands developers already signed up.

To my mind, if you are serious about software development you need to work with Intel. As the industry leader in chip development, partnering with Intel informally or formally is the best route to maximising your software's potential.

And if you want to get started with Intel's multi-core processors, how about these free one-day courses on parallelism and threading from Intel?

You can read more coverage on the launch of Intel's six core processor here.

Read Jim Henrys’ answers to your questions during Tuesday’s Virtualisation round table discussion.

Q: Dan Robinson: How would laptop users fit into a virtualised desktop (VDI) environment?

A: Looking ahead… in theory once a desktop is instantiated as an x86 virtual machine it can be moved from a server to a client device (as VMs can today be moved from server to server in dynamic resource pools); thus a desktop in a VDI environment can be migrate to a client device where it can then be used in both connected and disconnected states.

Q: Manek Dubash - How important is flexibility of device at the desktop - should all be locked down or should end users get to choose their own devices?

A: In today’s environment a standardized “one size fits all” approach has been  adopted to make the image build & validation process & support model one which is manageable.  This approach is somewhat device centric. Looking forward, virtualization offers us a way to become more user centric. For example, an individual in the enterprise may be using multiple devices for IT purposes – be it laptop, netbook or one of the emerging MID devices – and they want to access the same IT from each device. Virtualization offers the potential to virtualize an individual’s desktop/profile to a standardized x86 machine which can then migrate from device to device effectively “following them around”.  As IT would only have to concern them about validating an image for standard Virtual Machine it offers, again potentially, greater flexibility of device and form factor. Client side hypervisors, the missing ingredient needed to make this happen should become available in during 2010.

Q: Manek Dubash: What's the impact of so-called green computing on desktop virtualisation?

A: Proponents of server side desktop virtualization would argue that a Thin Client device used to access a virtual desktop is consumes less power than a traditional PC.  The thin client advocates will often use old, unmanaged desktops in power comparisons, which naturally paint PC-based computing in the most unfavorable light.  Also, beware of vendors that use the PC’s maximum power to calculate its power consumption.  PCs operate at maximum power only under peak workloads, such as video encoding, and spend most of their time at idle power. Further, you must look at power consumption of the complete end-2-end solution, not just the end point. Hence, to get a true picture the data center PUE and virtual desktops that can be hosted per server also need to be factored in.

Q: Chris - How can virtualization help startups from the word go, and would it be advisable to develop for it?

A: If starting up a new business today how would provision IT? There are vendors providing Software as a Service SaaS (e.g. salesforce.com), Platform as a Service PaaS (eg. Azure) and Infrastructure as a Service SAAS (e.g. Amazon EC2) with PaaS and SaaS models often based on server virtualization to be dynamically provisioned and scaled. With the advent of Client Virtualization the opportunity arises to provide Desktop as a Service – something for the SI community to explore. What will be interesting is seeing as a startup matures at which point it starts to bring key IT functions in-house as it is something that gives a competitive advantage; likewise when does an enterprise look to outsource non-competitive advantage IT functions?

Q: Anon - does the hardware make a difference? I see a lot of technology now having to be built into the thin client to compensate for graphics across the network, surely a PC still is better for this

A:Yes, the hardware makes a big difference to both the user experience and to IT. From the user side the advent of rich content such as Unified Communications (voice, video, collaboration); visualization (the emergence of the 3D internet) and rich applications (sliverlight, flash) which improve productivity need the powerful client side compute capabilities. Network load and graphics processing server-side can cause significant negative impact on the infrastructure – hence thin vendors have started looking at need for hardware acceleration technologies. Further, the Thin Client vendors have “thin clients” with 1GHz+ CPUs and embedded Windows XP operating systems to deal with these types of scenarios… begs the question “how thin is thin?” From the IT perspective Intel has a suite of capabilities that fall under the Intel vPro badge that improve/secure client side virtualization. Namely VT technology to ensure near native performance (to optimize and reduce the load of the overhead needed to run a hypervisor) and Trusted Execution Technology that can protect client side virtual machines from security threats.

Rick Echevarria, vice president of Intel’s Architecture Group has outlined some key points in the thinking behind the forthcoming vPro Core family of processors. At last week’s virtual launch, Echevarria repeated the phrase “no compromise” but what does this mean in real terms?

“VPro is the result of meeting users’ wishes for greater freedom,” he said. “The market is demanding a leap in power and performance but IT has rising concerns too about security, manageability, cost efficiency and better ROI.”

Much of the thinking is based on the demands of IT managers. Echevarria claimed that it has been Intel’s intention to remove processor power as one of the barriers to productivity. The built-in Turbo Boost technology adapts to the individual demands of PC users, recognising when the processor is not at capacity and increasing clockspeed where possible to boost performance for active cores. For notebook users this also means extending battery life through improved power management features.

OK, so a processor maker introducing a more powerful and faster range of processors is to be expected but adding built-in security and anti-theft technology as well as massively improving on power management is a leap in chip design. As Brad Anderson at Microsoft suggested, “vPro has enhanced Intel’s reputation as an innovator,” but Echevarria would argue that this innovation has been driven by the demands of users. This is not Intel pushing but the market pulling.

Echevarria pointed to the record number of independent software vendors supporting the vPro as testimony to its achievement. Over 500 ISVs are signed up with Intel to support vPro compared with less than 200 ISVs in 2008. This will create, according to Echevarria, an eco-system that will front the next drive in business computing, enabling moves to virtualisation and giving IOT managers the power and flexibility to cope with increased mobility and the consumerisation of technology.

“Users are doing more than ever with their PC - multitasking with numerous apps, collaborating in realtime with high definition video and VoIP, creating and sharing media rich graphics, mining data rich business apps and increasingly demanding greater mobility and remote access capabilities. With vPro this is possible. No compromise.”

It's time for one of our semi-regular looks at some of the best stories and features out there on the web.

IT Pro Portal has an interesting story about the Chinese authorities shutting down the country's biggest "hacker training centre". Of course, this comes just weeks after Google claimed that its own services in China were being targeted by hackers.

Network World looks into claims that there is a shortage of data centre expertise on the market, especially in the virtualization space. Very apposite given our roundtable on virtualisation today here on IT Galaxy.

BBC News has a fascinating piece looking at how mobile devices could benefit from a trick in quantum physics to create pressure sensitive touch interfaces. I'm no expert in quantum physics but essentially scientists have created a material that can detect different pressures by taking advantage of a phenomenon called "tunnelling". I suggest you read more if you want to really understand how it works.

The Rackspace website has a post rounding up stats from uptime monitoring firm Pingdom.com Apparently, in 2009 over 90 trillion e-mails were sent across the net.  Every day 200 billion spam e-mails are sent - and most of them seem to land in my inbox.

Smaller and more efficient home consumer electronics could be on the way if a Sony innovation takes off. The Register reports on Sony's new wireless technology designed to replace wires inside devices. Instead of using wires, the technology can transmit data at very high speeds but at extremely short distances.

From the Register: "Using a 1mm antenna, Sony was able to get a 11Gb/s transmission speed over a distance of just 14mm. The effort used 70mW of power. Better, more directional aerials can be used to get the distance up to 50mm"

And why do this? Well, it could mean the replacement of components inside devices making them more power efficient and even smaller.

For anyone over the age of 40 and working in the IT industry, the idea that computers and components could be treated as antiques is a strange one. Electronics during the 80s and 90s progressed on an almost weekly basis - new components, new machines and new software. The speed of development was relentless and in its wake was left a veritable graveyard of worn-out, laughable (and increasingly incompatible) machines.

Overhearing a conversation between motor sport journalists at Silverstone this week, I was intrigued by one man (who was definitely over 40) speaking about his collection of old PCs and components. He had a collection of old tech, from early Sinclair ZX81s and Spectrums to Amstrad PCWs and 286 PCs. He had memory chips, old floppy drives and discs, you name it.

“Why?” I asked.

“For my son,” came the reply. “They’ll be worth a fortune one day. They’ll be antiques.”

Thanks dad.

He has a point though. Not many people will have held onto their old technology and history has proven that niche collectors markets tend to be lucrative. It does get you thinking about all the stuff you have thrown away over the years, how long the IT industry has been going and what a central part Intel has played in its development. It’s odd to think that the microprocessor started its journey 40 years ago. In 1970, Intel introduced its first commercial chip (the 4004) which was originally designed to be used in the Busicom calculator. An advert in Electronic News announced its arrival but the Busicom was doomed, due largely to a Japanese recession in 1974. However in that same year, the 8080 chip emerged with a clock speed of 2Mhz (!) and laid the foundations for the 8088 (5Mhz) which powered the new IBM PC.

A year later the 286 chip emerged and the stage was set for the next 20 years as Intel produced a stream of x86 processors powering Microsoft-driven PCs. The 286 was a 6Mhz chip with 134,000 transistors, a revelation in chip design but still dubbed "brain dead" by Bill Gates for its inability to manage multiple MS-Dos apps.  For me, 1989 was the year it started to fly. The 486 running at 25Mhz (nosebleed time) arrived with the integrated floating point unit and enough kick to make it a decent games machine. Memories of old favourites such as Prince of Persia, Indy 500, Outrun and Populous still bring a smile to the face and at the time they were cutting edge. It’s incredible to think you would now need over 120 486 chips to get anywhere near the power and speed of Intel’s forthcoming Westmere family.

Life in the late 1980s was slow but still exciting and the games and machines of that era are now entering the nostalgia phase for the current crop of 40 and 50-somethings. It’s always difficult to imagine what will become of an industry when you are stuck in the middle of it. Perhaps it’s time to take stock and look around you. The netbooks, desktops and iPads of today will be tomorrow’s inheritance to a generation that will look back and laugh at the fact that we ran our machines at clock speeds of 3Ghz.

For more information on chip history...

Intel Museum - http://www.intel.com/museum/corporatetimeline/

Processor Timeline - http://download.intel.com/pressroom/kits/IntelProcessorHistory.pdf

We have launched the new upgrade to the game!

IT Manager III: Unseen Forces brings you another new technology. Raise your game with Core Intelligence, brought to you by all new 2010 Intel® Core™ Processor Family.

See some exciting features of the upgrade below:

Core Intelligence delivers performance on demand, making your employees more efficient, whatever application they run. Just apply it and watch their bozon count fall. And that’s not all. Thanks to the dynamic power management feature of Core Intelligence, when your employees nip to the café for a sandwich, their machines’ running cost is reduced to zero.

The energy efficient fabrication process behind the technology also means that, when you apply Core Intelligence to a PC or laptop, you get all the benefits of Eco-tech III as well.

Want to gain a strategic advantage over other players? We have incorporated a secret level (well, a secret floor, actually) into this update. Find it, figure out the little puzzle and you could get access to Core Intelligence long before your rivals.

Make full use of the technology and you’ll also be invited to join The Order of Core Intelligence (yes, that means there’s a new medal to collect, too).

If you have any comments or feedback about the game, leave something below.

Craig - IT Galaxy Community Manager

So let's take a look at some of the more interesting stories around the web as part of our regular trawl.

The battle to find a replacement for 3G data networks, which are in my opinion struggling to cope with the demands of smartphone users, is really about just two competing technologies - Wimax and LTE. Intel is a big supporter of Wimax, and you can find more about it here. Intel believes Wimax is the best option because it is low cost and built on existing, proven, IP standards.

But Long Term Evolution has its supporters and The Inquirer reports on efforts to create harmonised spectrum. Without it, many observers feel LTE will not succeed.

Microsoft is looking to strengthen its commitment to cloud services, with the announcement of a $250m partnership with HP. The deal will "combine some research and development efforts and deliver prepackaged servers, storage, software, and networking gear" reports Business Week.

As we move to a cloud-dominated world, data security becomes ever more important. ZDnet reports on moves by the UK Information Commissioner's Office to gain powers to fine firms up to £500,000 for breaches of the Data Protection Act.

The BETT education and technology conference is underway in London and The Register gives its view of a speech by schools minister Vernon Coaker.

That's what caught our eye in the last day. What's caught yours?