Innovation Now
Highlighting Innovation Around The U.S.
Intel unveils 1 teraflop chip with 50-plus cores
The chip attains its high processing speeds by making use of multiple processors, or a Many Integrated Core – MIC architecture; in this case, more than 50, which pretty much puts to shame the quad-core technology being advertised for use in computers used by regular people. The new chip will first be installed in a machine at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, which expects the system to run at 10 petaflops.
The announcement of the chip has industry insiders marveling once again at the progress being made in systems architecture. It was just fourteen years ago that Intel showed off its first computer capable of running at 1 teraflop, a machine that required almost 10,000 Pentium chips and took up all of 72 cabinets. Putting all that power in one new chip reduces power consumption dramatically.
The new chip isn’t meant to be used as a CPU though, instead it’s to serve as a coprocessor, taking on specific, highly computational routines, helping to bump up the overall speed of a computer, much the same way graphics processors are used in desktop PC’s.
And speaking of graphics processors, the announcement of the Knights Corner means Intel is taking direct aim at Nvidia and AMD, two companies that make graphics processors but who have also branched out into making their coprocessors a useful component in superfast computers. Thus, the stakes have just been raised.
Intel says its product is a better fit for most current systems due to its being based on x86 architecture, because adopters won’t have to port their applications to a new technology, unlike its competitors. Full article here.