Computer Company Intel has unveiled a prototype 48 core processor chip the size of a postage stamp.

The Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC), as its known, 1.3 billion (1.3 x 10⁹) transistors, the tiny on-off switch that underpin chip technology. Each processing core could, in theory, run a separate operating system. (For those at home, That’s 48 programs in all).

Currently, top end chips contain around 4 processors.

Intel and Rival AMD will release new 6-core processor devices in 2010, allowing computers to simultaneously tackle a number of different tasks, like processing graphics.

The Chip has won the ‘cloud’ name because it brings together the computing resources normally taking up several racks in a data centre. The SCC is made up of 24 ‘tiles’, each one effectively a dual-core processor.

The chip maker said that the research gone into making this chip means that it would eventually be possible to cram 100 cores onto a single piece of silicon. In 2007, a the firm showed off an 80 core processor, whilst earlier this year an American organisation called Tilera announced a 100-core chip. Also, Graphics chip maker Nvidia has unveiled its next-generation chip with 512 cores.

However, unlike both of these, the SCC is based on Intel’s X86 architecture, meaning that it can run operating systems found in normal desktop systems like Linux and Windows. Microsoft has said it had already put SCC into its development pipeline so it could exploit it in the future.

Intel said it had already demonstrated Linux running on each core. It has also found a way to slash the management overhead needed to keep the processors crunching in sync.

Intel said the SCC will be made available to researchers and interested companies during the first half of 2010. More details will be released at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in Sand Francisco on 8^th February 2010.