Intel didn't say it, but I suspect that one of the applications will be changeable crypto. If you're going to incorporate AES and similar instructions, then you also have to worry that your processor might become instantly obsolete if a bug is found in one of these algorithms. Also, FPGA's allow for experimentation that will help decide what will become hard-wired instructions in the next generation of processors. At 07:33 AM 6/23/2014, Whitfield Diffie wrote:

...

We are integrating our industry leading Xeon processor with a coherent FPGA in a single package, socket compatible to our standard Xeon E5 processor offerings.

In the late sixties there was an announcement by DEC of a PDP-6 with programmable firmware. At least, I think that is what it must have been because what I recall is Gosper's response: if you had that, why would you want it to be a PDP-6. My response to this is the same.

If you have a CPU with an FPGA, why do you need anything more than a primitive processor to manage the programming of the FPGA. Could you not get rid of much of the legacy processor which, I assume, is most of the Xeon.

Whit