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Intel Announces 48-Core "Single-Chip Cloud Computer"

16,580 Views 5 Comments Share Flag as inappropriate
Jansen Ng December 03, 2009

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 todays 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 Intels 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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With a chip like this, you could imagine a cloud datacenter of the future which will be an order of magnitude more energy efficient than what exists today, saving significant resources on space and power costs, said Justin Rattner, the head of Intel Labs and Intels Chief Technology Officer. Over time, I expect these advanced concepts to find their way into mainstream devices, just as advanced automotive technology such as electronic engine control, air bags and anti-lock braking eventually found their way into all cars. Although the hardware is impressive, it is the software that will determine how well the SCC works. Creating software with just a couple of threads is difficult enough, but applications written for the SCC will have new capabilities like dynamically managing which cores are used for a given task at a given time. Related tasks can be executed on adjacent or nearby cores, and the SCC is capable of passing results from one core directly to the next in an assembly line. Voltage and clock speed can also be individually controlled through software. Intel says that parallel programming approaches used in cloud datacenter software have been applied when designing the SCC. Researchers from Intel, HP, Yahoo, and several research institutions have been working on an open cloud-computing research testbed project named Open Cirrus, which has begun porting cloud applications to the SCC using Hadoop, a Java software framework which supports data-intensive, distributed applications. Intel says that the long-term research goal is to add incredible scaling features to future computers that spur entirely new software applications and human-machine interfaces. The company plans to work with several dozen industry and academic research partners around the world next year by manufacturing and sharing 100 or more SCC chips for hands-on research in developing new software applications and programming models for future many-core processors. Microsoft is partnering with Intel to explore new hardware and software architectures supporting nextgeneration client plus cloud applications, said Dan Reed, Microsofts Corporate Vice President of Extreme Computing. Our early research with the single chip cloud computer prototype has already identified many opportunities in intelligent resource management, system software design, programming models and tools, and future application scenarios. The SCC was co-created by researchers working at Intel Labs locations in Bangalore (India), Braunschweig (Germany) and Hillsboro, Oregon research centers. More details on the chips architecture are scheduled to be published in a paper at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in February.

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david_coleman_007
9 days ago 2 comments

Maybe if the Free Software Foundation had access to one of these chips, that would be more trouble than it is worth... The Free Software Foundation would then be a target of "why are they special" for all open source groups... Intel will make 200 chips. They should go to the top 100 organizations which have proven track records of developing cloud computing operating systems. 50 organizations will get 2 chips to explore multi-SCC server cluster solutions, and 50 chips should go to start up organizations that have the proper credentials to gain acceptance from Intel as competent to make valid use of the chip and explore and develop potential new software solutions on the platform. The FSF should not get a chip just because they are the FSF. Microsoft maintains and distributes cloud computing server operating systems. The FSF of course should request a chip so that they can do parallel research into extending the GNU/Linux platform to this technology. Obviously the world is full of complainers who would rather whine about "being cut out" instead of actually working to be included. I notice that the complainer has no actual associating with the FSF, but is just a whiny "supporter" who the FSF is probably better off not being affiliated with. I am a supporter of the FSF, and I would like to see them request a chip and be granted one. BUT!!! I don't think that whining about it is proper or professional, much less in any way effective as a means of forwarding the interests of Open Software. Kudos to Moldy01 for recognizing this and shame on phantasyconcepts for reducing the importance of Open Source Software to "Waaaaaa I want one too".

cracoscosmos
10 days ago 6 comments

Bye bye single L2 cache - Hello double L2 cache - bring on all the 3rd party background services !!

Moldy01
10 days ago 22 comments

Having worked for Intel before, I can tell you that they have no intention of making any 'exclusive' agreements with ANYONE. That is simply NOT their style. That does include any open source initiatives etc... They do, indeed, work closely with Microsoft, but that is more due to the advanced products development than it is to the exclusivity of any arrangements. I spent my time with Microsoft in development (as did most of my group), but I spent far more time in development with many other Independent developers (of course, that was the purpose of our group). From the point of view of Intel, one can understand their reticence to make any of those type of arrangements (thus locking themselves into one of MANY groups). I will have to admit that open source software is not really noted for advanced development of the type discussed in this article. And, as Intel is bent on directing the future of computing, they will obviously spend more effort working with like-thinking groups than dragging others along, right?

phantasyconcepts
10 days ago 16 comments

So, who from the Free Software Foundation has been allowed to have access to this chip? What about Apple, IBM or Sun (okay, Oracle)? Giving Microsoft exclusive information is like telling the world Intel has no intention of supporting any open source initiatives.

michaelw209
10 days ago 14 comments

WOW!

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