48-core Intel processor
Yesterday Intel demonstrated an experimental 48 core processor called Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC). This chip boasts about 10 to 20 times the processing engines inside today's Intel processors. Actually a 48 core processor, the chip is a prototype of a very early 100 core project where each one of the full x86 cores is communicating with each other at full speed. It also includes newly invented power management techniques that allow all 48 cores to operate efficiently at as little as 25 watts or at 125 watts when running at maximum performance. Intel engineers say the primary obstacle to the processor is software optimization, since most of the existing software is designed to address a small number of cores and needs to be modified to operate with many tasks running in parallel. Some features of the SCC are due to show up in Intel's 2010 processor line, like the upcoming Core i9. This milestone represents the latest achievement from Intel's Tera-scale Computing Research Program, aimed at breaking barriers to scaling future chips to 10s-100s of cores.
US $762.00
