Intel Demonstrates 48-Core Single-Chip Cloud Computer

From DailyTech: Intel has repeatedly stated that it believes the future of computing lies in many-core CPUs. The company will be releasing its six-core Gulftown chip based on 32nm Westmere technology next year, and it is still working on its Larabee many-core GPU.

Several years ago, Intel showed off its 80-core Teraflops Research Chip. That chip was highly experimental, with only simple floating-point cores. Three years later, Intel has something much more advanced.

Intel calls its new 48-core IA32 processor a "single-chip cloud computer" (SCC) because of the way it resembles cloud datacenters, claiming that it "rethinks many of the approaches used in today's designs". The SCC consists of 24 "tiles", with two IA32 cores and a router per tile creating a mesh network with 256GB/s of bandwidth.

Each tile (2 cores) can run at its own independent frequency, and groupings of four tiles (8 cores) can each run at their own voltage. The SCC can run all 48 cores at one time over a range of 25W to 125W and is capable of selectively varying the voltage and frequency of the mesh network as well. The SCC also features four integrated memory controllers capable of addressing 64GB of DDR3 DRAM, and was built on Intel's current 45nm high-K metal gate process.

Cloud datacenters currently run most of the internet, and can use tens of thousands of computers connected by a physically cabled network. They are capable of distributing large datasets and working them in parallel. The SCC uses a similar approach, with all the parts integrated on a single 567mm2 chip, which is approximately the size of a postage stamp.

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