Intel Demos System Based on 48-Core Processor

[madass]

You know what? That thing is going to be massively hard drive limited.....

 

[dertechie]

Eat your heart out Tilera.

 

[zaznet]

[citation][nom]Komma[/nom]If it's server-type computation work, the current bottleneck is usually in I/O, not the CPU.[/citation]

That's where having all these cores on a chip comes into play. Read the article again and pay attention to the mention of included routers and cores sharing data between them. Each core can talk to the other core without going to the system board first. This reduces that network IO in a 48 core CPU that uses many systems connected together.

Almost any task that benefits from a super computer today would be suitable for this system and depending on scale may see performance improvements.

I doubt this would be very suitable for virtualization as the system board IO bottle neck would limit connectivity to each OS running on the chip.

 

[Guest]

Cool, I'll install SQL server on it and save a bunch on licensing
to bad for Oracle they charge by the core not by socket

 

[bildo123]

[citation][nom]dalta centauri[/nom]Why do people thing this is going to be for gaming rigs, or more so that it's going to be sold to the general public? I think they would release it to businesses only.[/citation]

Not sure, says "Single Chip Cloud Computer" right on the damn thing. Seems like a bunch of kids are on here, much more so than previous years.

 

[wcooper007]

Super Talent RAIDDrive 128 GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive STU28GSRK

go take a look at this thing and you will understand why they used usb flash drives to boot lol this thing is super fast...

 

[martin0642]

Proper usage of multi-core will certainly affect gaming. I think it's the only way we're going to get photorealism in real time. If you think about it though, once true photorealism and physics are attained, the "engines" used for games wont matter nearly as much as the art and story. Not holding me breath though.

 

[CoryInJapan]

{ehanger} "But Can it play Crysis?"
[citation][nom]dark_knight33[/nom]But can that joke die already?[/citation]
But Can it Play Crysis 2? lol.Im sorry,I just had too.

 

[killerchickens]

Its just an intel larrabee so in a few years we might be able to by one to game with. The cores are all programable so you could use some to do cpu or gpu task I think.

 

[hothar228]

The potential for using servers with this configuration as Virtual server hosts is phenomenal. I, for one, am excited about the possibilities for the virtual computing world.

 

[Anomalyx]

Now an impressive feature would be if it could shut off cores that aren't needed and allow the operating cores to have access to the disabled cores' cache. If only a few cores are running at once, that's quite an impressive amount of cache. Then again, if only a few cores are running at once, this processor will be a bit overkill. Not to mention the design challenges involved in making cache amounts dynamic.

 

[jaybus]

[citation][nom]mapesdhs[/nom]Did Intel say if it was possible to run a single OS instanceon the system? ie. do the chips include NUMA support?Ian.[/citation]
The memory architecture is not a NUMA design. All tiles access the single RAM space, though each has it's own L2 cache shared by its 2 cores and each core has its own L1. This is clearly designed for message passing, its internal networking being many times faster than Infiniband. It's a beowulf cluster on a chip, so it has the appearance of a "single OS" only in the sense that you connect to a single master node (tile) to run programs.

 

[Shin-san]

Sounds like research from Larrabee, and sounds more like a GPU. This chip might not be that bad, especially since Intel SSE units are really good.

 

[eddieroolz]

Since each tiles can run its own OS, that probably means you can run 24 different OS's at the same time - amazing!

 

[BoxBabaX]

[citation][nom]dark_knight33[/nom]But can that joke die already?[/citation]

Never, that is indeed the most important question

 

[Assmar]

I LOVED Jon Damos in Full House!

 

[aneasytarget]

Great chip for server farms, web farms, or HPC - high performance computing.

 

[zaznet]

[citation][nom]hothar228[/nom]The potential for using servers with this configuration as Virtual server hosts is phenomenal. I, for one, am excited about the possibilities for the virtual computing world.[/citation]

Only for systems that don't require a lot of IO. Right now running them as systems that talk to each other like a super computer is how this thing is designed and best used. Running VMWare on something like this would create a huge IO bottle neck. We already see it with 12+ CPU systems in the virtual environment (depending on user load).

Dedicate each CPU to a virtual machine, limit the external network communication and this thing will be perfect for that.

 

[farleytron]

I will bet MONEY that this is nothing but 24 atom 330's on a single package. Look at the power consumption estimates... and the size of the cpu cooler denotes 24 VERY small chips... there is no way any of Intel's current chips would fit, and stay within a 125 watt power envelope.

Basically, it's just a proof of concept design that was cheap to make.

I'm sure four Nehalems would run CIRCLES around this silly thing.

 

[liquidchild]

don't read this in public..cuz when your gym teacher told you during sex ed class that no one can see your accidental boner..HE LIED. I'm an AMD man myself but the raw power here is "mind bottling". Does anyone know how this would compare to the Fastra II

 

[farleytron]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2334883,00.asp

SGI pitched this idea with 10,000 cores.

 

[farleytron]

SGI Atom Supercomputer

 

[JeanLuc]

[citation][nom]ehanger[/nom]but can it play crysis?[/citation]

You know the day will come when some boffin at Intel or AMD will say 'stuff it. I'll render Crysis on nothing but this new CPU and that will shut those forum nerds up about bloody Crysis.'

 

[jgalecio]

But can it run Flash 10.1?!

 

[ethanolson]

Single Server Cloud Computer? Isn't that a contradiction? Did Intel Marketing just define the cloud as a certain number of logical CPUs?