Intel's vision of 48 core SCC might become reality
By Ojas Sharma   |   Wednesday, 16 December 2009, 22:32 IST
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Intel's vision of 48 core SCC might become reality
Bangalore: Earlier this month, Intel unveiled a concept version of 48 core Intel processor, which is also called Single-Chip Cloud Computer (SCC). Currently, on the consumers' side we are still using quad (4) core processors, while on the server side Intel has launched six core processors. Now, just imagine how fast will be a 48 core processor. This concept chip, if converted into reality will bring a phenomenal breakthrough in the world of computers. Just to give you an idea of the speed of these processors, 48 core SCC can offer the speed of 256 GB/sec. "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, Chief Technological Officer of Intel who was speaking at a press conference in the city, where engineers from Intel Bangalore gave a live demo of the processing capabilities of SCC. What is surprising about SCC is that Intel claims it can run at power of two household bulbs or the same power as the current Intel processors. SCC includes a high-speed on-chip network for sharing information along with newly invented power management techniques that allow all 48 cores to operate extremely energy efficiently at as little as 25 watts when idle (as shown in the live demo in the conference). Two years ago, Intel had showcased an 80-core Teraflop processor, based on that concept this 48-core processor was formed. "The single-chip cloud computer was designed as a concept vehicle for parallel software research. We believe this is an ideal research platform to help accelerate many-core software research and advanced development. Coming on the heels of the successful 80-core Teraflop processor, we knew we had to get this one right on the first go. The complexity of this chip is multi-fold, with a much larger die size, system level complexities and challenges of 45nm physical design. The belief of the global team in our capabilities and the dedication displayed by the team at the Bangalore labs enabled us to build this research prototype successfully and take us yet another step forward in the Tera-scale journey," said Vasantha Erraguntla, Senior Engineering Manager, Intel Labs India. Intel Labs has nicknamed this test chip a "single-chip cloud computer" because it resembles the organization of datacenters used to create a "cloud" of computing resources over the Internet, a notion of delivering such services as online banking, social networking and online stores to millions of users. Cloud datacenters are comprised of tens to thousands of computers connected by a physically cabled network, distributing large tasks and massive datasets in parallel. Intel's new experimental research chip uses a similar approach, yet all the computers and networks are integrated on a single piece of Intel 45nm, high-k metal-gate silicon about the size of a postage stamp, dramatically reducing the amount of physical computers needed to create a cloud datacenter. "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," said Rattner. Programming processors with multiple cores is a well-known challenge for the industry as computer and software makers move toward many-cores on a single silicon chip. The prototype allows popular and efficient parallel programming approaches used in cloud datacenter software to be applied on the chip. Researchers from Intel, HP and Yahoo's Open Cirrus collaboration have already begun porting cloud applications to this 48 IA core chip using Hadoop, a Java software framework supporting data-intensive, distributed applications as demonstrated by Rattner today. Intel plans to build 100 or more experimental chips for use by dozens of industrial and academic research collaborators around the world with the goal of developing new software applications and programming models for future many-core processors. Researchers in India led the circuit/physical design of the IA core, memory controller logic and the mesh interconnect network. This included implementing synthesis/custom circuits on Intel's 45nm process technology, validating the functionality and performance verification of the design. The critical logic and physical design expertise of the team allowed Intel labs to build a full microprocessor quickly without the need to iterate through the full fabrication process multiple times, as is typical for microprocessor products. Intel India labs is playing a very important role in overall Intel products and development. When questioned about the recent projects that are going on in the labs, Vittal Kini, Director of Intel Labs Bangalore said "Recently, we have worked on multi core processors. There are also other topics that we are addressing such as secure trusted platforms, how can we use then in environment where there are financial transactions or high insurance transactions. We are looking at technologies that can help to protect against malware." Even if the prime focus of SCC maybe to make datacenters more efficient, SCC can soon become a part of daily computing experience. But this might take a lot of time. Rattner says that it might be around 2014-2015 when Intel might start converting this concept chip into commercialized reality for businesses. Of course, this might completely depend on the research carried out by Intel and its partners in the coming years.

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