Intel Unveils HPC Roadmap

Intel Corporation has announced plans to deliver new products based on the Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture that will create platforms running at trillions of calculations per second, while also retaining the benefits of standard Intel processors.

Targeting high-performance computing segments such as exploration, scientific research and financial or climate simulation, the first product, codenamed “Knights Corner” will be made on Intel’s 22-nanometer manufacturing (nm) process – using transistor structures as small as 22 billionths of a meter – and will use Moore’s Law to scale to more than 50 Intel processing cores on a single chip. The Intel MIC architecture is derived from several Intel projects, including “Larrabee” and such Intel Labs research projects as the Single-chip Cloud Computer. Industry design and development kits codenamed “Knights Ferry” are currently shipping to select developers, and beginning in the second half of 2010, Intel will expand the program to deliver an extensive range of developer tools for Intel MIC architecture.

“Intel’s Xeon processors, and now our new Intel Many Integrated Core architecture products, will further push the boundaries of science and discovery as Intel accelerates solutions to some of humanity’s most challenging problems " said Kirk Skaugen, Vice President and General Manager, Data Center Group, Intel. " The Intel MIC architecture will extend Intel’s leading HPC products and solutions that are already in nearly 82 percent of the world’s top supercomputers. Today’s investments are indicative of Intel’s growing commitment to the global HPC community.”

Also, the 35th edition of the TOP500 list shows that Intel continues to be the platform of choice in high-performance computing, with 408 systems, or nearly 82 percent, powered by Intel processors. More than 90 percent of quad-core-based systems use Intel processors, with the Intel Xeon 5500 series processor nearly doubling its presence with 186 systems. Intel chips also power three systems in the top 10 and four out of five new entrants in the top 30. Seven systems contain the recently announced Intel Xeon 5600 series processor, codenamed “Westmere-EP” and two systems are powered by the new Intel Xeon 7500 series processor, codenamed “Nehalem-EX”.