In 2006:

• January 5: Rapport introduces the KC256, a 256-core microprocessor. This is the first member of the Kilocore family, a massively parallel chip architecture.

• August 24: SPEC releases the CPU2006 benchmarking suite
• August 31: NXP is officially launched during the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin

• October 9: Cavium announces a new family of multi-core communication processors, the OCTEON Plus.

• November 29: MathStar introduced their 2nd generation FPOA, the Arrix family.