Intel: Why a 1,000-core chip is feasible
Chipmaker Intel has been investigating the issue of scaling the
number of cores in chips through its Terascale Computing
Research Program, which has so far yielded two experimental
chips of 80 and 48 cores.
In November, Intel engineer Timothy Mattson caused a stir at
the Supercomputer 2010 Conference when he told the audience
that one of the Terascale chips--the 48-core Single-chip Cloud
Mattson, who is a principal engineer at Intel's Microprocessor
Technology Laboratory, talked to ZDNet UK about the
reasoning behind his views and why--while a 1,000-core chip
isn't on Intel's roadmap--the path to creating such a processor
is now is visible.
Q: What would it take to build a 1,000-core processor?
Mattson: The challenge this presents to those of us in parallel
computing at Intel is, if our fabs [fabrication department] could
build a 1,000-core chip, do we have an architecture in hand
that could scale that far? And if built, could that chip be
effectively programmed?
The architecture used on the 48-core chip could indeed fit that
bill....
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