Just Slap the Thing in a MacBook, Already, Will Ya?

With 1.3-billion transistors and a 48-core processor, Intel’s new “Single-chip Cloud Computer” could power a formidable computer indeed. But it will be a while before the SCC reaches market, if ever.

Uncrated at an event in San Francisco Wednesday, the next-generation chip boasts approximately 10 to 20 times the processing power found inside current Intel (INTC) “Core” CPUs. And it can operate on as little as 25 watts, or at 125 watts when running at maximum performance–about the amount of energy consumed by two household light bulbs.

“With a chip like this, you could imagine a cloud datacenter of the future which will be an order of magnitude more energy efficient than what exists today, saving significant resources on space and power costs,” said Justin Rattner, head of Intel Labs and Intel’s chief technology officer. “Over time, I expect these advanced concepts to find their way into mainstream devices.”

But not yet. Right now, Intel is giving the chips to a few select research partners, who will use them to develop new software applications and programming models for future multicore processors. Said Ratner, “This is not a product. It never will be a product. But it provides a very good platform for conducting research.”