Researchers want to give a 25-core open-source processor called Piton some serious bite.
The developers of the chip at Princeton University have in mind a 200,000-core computer crammed with 8,000 64-bit Piton chips.
It won't happen anytime soon, but that's one possible usage scenario for Piton. The chip is designed to be flexible and quickly scalable, and will have to ensure the giant collection of cores are in sync when processing applications in parallel.
Details about Piton were provided at the Hot Chips conference this week. The goal was to design a chip that could be used in large data centers that handle social networking requests, search and cloud services. The response time in social networking and search is tied to the horsepower of servers in data centers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IBM's Power processors have a storied history; they were notably used in the Watson supercomputer that outsmarted humans in the game of Jeopardy in 2011. The latest chip in the family, called the Power9, is coming next year, and it stands out for its blazing speed and for technologies never seen in chips before.IBM is spilling Power9 details at the Hot Chips conference in Cupertino, California, this week. Here's some important information about the chip.Power9 servers will be smarter than the Jeopardy winner
The sheer computing power in Power9 will make supercomputers virtually unbeatable in Jeopardy, unless a superhuman demonstrating exceptional intelligence comes along. The Power9 architecture has up to 24 cores and provides blazing throughput to speed up complex calculations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Graphics processors with Nvidia's NVLink throughput technology have just started coming out, but a successor to the groundbreaking interconnect is already on its way.IBM's upcoming Power9 chip will include NVLink 2.0 technology, and servers using the chip will be available next year.Nvidia hasn't yet announced when GPUs with NVLink 2.0 would come out, but they could be available around the same time as the new Power9 servers come out.IBM is projecting Power9 servers to be out by the middle of next year, but the company hasn't nailed down a specific date.A presentation on Nvidia's website says NVLink 2.0 will be in GPUs code-named Volta, which also will come out next year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ARM conquered the mobile market starting with Apple's iPhone, and now wants to be in the world's fastest computers.A new ARM chip design being announced on Monday is targeted at supercomputers, a lucrative market in which the company has no presence. ARM's new chip design, which has mobile origins, has extensions and tweaks to boost computing power.The announcement comes a few weeks after Japanese company Softbank said it would buy ARM for a mammoth US$32 billion. With the cash, ARM is expected to sharpen its focus on servers and the internet of things.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Speed is kingImage by University of California, DavisThis year's Hot Chips conference is all about chips that can rake, power efficiency be damned. That's because virtual reality, machine learning, and self-driving cars demand heaps of processing power, not low power consumption. Here are some the fastest chips being detailed at the conference, starting Sunday in Cupertino, California.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In 2009, Apple CEO Tim Cook memorably trashed Atom-based netbooks for being "junky" hardware that underperformed. Intel's Atom chips have come a long way since, with the latest generation code-named Broxton boasting the most impressive improvements.The new Atom T5500 and 5700 chips have features found in low-end PC processors, but the chips are instead targeted at robots, drones, wearables, and smart home devices.A standout feature is 4K decoding and encoding capabilities, which could allow the chips to be used in virtual reality and augmented reality headsets.Intel showed smart glasses, a bartending robot, and a smart motorcycle helmet with the Broxton chips at the Intel Developer Forum this week. Intel also said the chips could be used be in storage or media servers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hardware experts believed the last DRAM would be the current DDR4, but that's not the case, with DDR5 memory now under development.Specifications for DDR5 memory will be released this year, and deployment of the DRAM will begin in 2020, according to a slide deck presented at the Intel Developer Forum this week.DDR5 DRAM will have many benefits: Users will be able to cram more memory into PCs, and applications will run faster. DDR5 memory will be denser than earlier DRAM, and also consume less power, which could extend battery life in laptops.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel believes the days of using copper wires for data transfers, both between computers and inside of them, are numbered because optical communications are on the horizon.The chipmaker has started shipping silicon photonics modules, which use light and lasers to speed up data transfers between computers.The silicon photonics components will initially allow for optical communications between servers and data centers, stretching over long distances, said Diane Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group.Over time, Intel will put optical communications at the chip level, Bryant said during a keynote at Intel Developer Forum on Wednesday. That means light will drive communications inside computers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel believes the days of using copper wires for data transfers, both between computers and inside of them, are numbered because optical communications are on the horizon.The chipmaker has started shipping silicon photonics modules, which use light and lasers to speed up data transfers between computers.The silicon photonics components will initially allow for optical communications between servers and data centers, stretching over long distances, said Diane Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group.Over time, Intel will put optical communications at the chip level, Bryant said during a keynote at Intel Developer Forum on Wednesday. That means light will drive communications inside computers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A compact computer called Euclid from Intel should make the development of robots much easier.Euclid looks much like the Kinect camera for Xbox consoles, but it's a self-contained PC that can be the guts of a robot.It's possible to install the Euclid computer where the "eyes" of a human-like robot would be typically placed. Intel demonstrated the Euclid computer in a robot moving on stage during CEO Brian Krzanich's keynote at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday.Euclid has a 3D RealSense camera that can serve as the eyes in a robot, capturing images in real-time. It has motion and position sensors that can help the robot move around both indoors and outdoors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A compact computer called Euclid from Intel should make the development of robots much easier.Euclid looks much like the Kinect camera for Xbox consoles, but it's a self-contained PC that can be the guts of a robot.It's possible to install the Euclid computer where the "eyes" of a human-like robot would be typically placed. Intel demonstrated the Euclid computer in a robot moving on stage during CEO Brian Krzanich's keynote at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday.Euclid has a 3D RealSense camera that can serve as the eyes in a robot, capturing images in real-time. It has motion and position sensors that can help the robot move around both indoors and outdoors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HP said it would return to the high-end gaming PC market with a bang, and it sure has, with fully loaded Omen PCs.The funky looking Omen X desktop and Omen 17 laptop are equipped with the latest CPUs and GPUs for the best gaming and virtual reality experiences. These are among HP's most expensive PCs outside of the professional Z workstations.The Omen X is a cube, with two stands holding the chassis upright. The desktop combines air and liquid cooling to dissipate heat, and the unique chassis design provides a great ventilation system.The desktop has the bells and whistles typically found in gaming rigs. It can be configured with Intel's latest Core i5 or i7-6700K CPU, and up to two Nvidia GTX 1080 or AMD Radeon R9 Fury X GPUs, which are among the fastest available. The PC can also be configured with AMD's latest Radeon RX 480 based on the Polaris architecture.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel has unleashed a new competitor to Raspberry Pi 3 with its new Joule development board, which packs in superior graphics and wireless connectivity.The chipmaker has loaded the development board with technology found in regular PCs: a 64-bit quad-core Atom processor, 4K graphics, 802.11ac connectivity, and DDR4 memory features.However, Joule doesn't compete on price with the Raspberry Pi, which sells for US$35. A high-end version of the Joule board is on sale at the Intel Developer Forum this week for $369.99.The Joule will provide big-time computing power for robots, drones, smart devices, and wearables. Like Raspberry Pi, Joule supports flavors of Linux and the Windows 10 IoT Core operating systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel isn't yet shipping its Optane SSDs, but they soon will be available for testing over the cloud.
This is good news for enterprise users, who are eagerly awaiting the new class of storage and memory shown to break SSD speed records.
Optane is based on 3D Xpoint technology, which is 10 times faster than the technology in standard SSDs. It also can serve as a substitute to traditional DRAM, but software needs to be written so parts of Optane operate like memory tiers.
Optane SSDs will be available at the end of the year to enterprises and gamers. Unfortunately for gamers, the cloud-based Optane test bed will be accessible for free only to enterprise users looking to test applications tied to financial transactions, machine learning, autonomous driving, and other uses, Intel said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel isn't known for its graphics processors, but the company is promising a big improvement with its 7th generation Core processors, code-named Kaby Lake.The Kaby Lake chips, which will succeed Skylake, will feature integrated 4K graphics processors, the company said at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday.Intel showed off Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch shooter game running smoothly on a Dell XPS with a Kaby Lake chip during Intel CEO Brian Krzanich's keynote.Intel also showed off an HP 2-in-1 running 4K graphics.The chip will allow PCs to play premium 4K content smoothly, said an Intel representative demonstrating the PC. The chip will have hardware-accelerated 4K video decoding.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For decades, PCs were at the center of Intel's business, but not anymore.Self-driving cars, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence are more attractive to Intel, which no longer views PCs as a priority. That's the message the company will try to deliver at Intel Developer Forum, starting on Tuesday.IDF attendees will see drones fly around and robots roaming the floor, and they will be able to try on cool wearables and VR and AR (augmented reality) headsets.Unlike past years, attendees won't be wowed with a lot of blazing laptops and desktops running upcoming PC processors. Instead, Intel will provide an insight into its internet-of-things and data-center strategies. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HP may have tried, but it couldn't hold the secrets of Intel's unreleased Kaby Lake and Apollo Lake CPU chips close to its chest.Some details on the new chips were unintentionally shared by HP in the maintenance documents of an unannounced PC, the Pavilion x360 m1.PCs with Kaby Lake -- called 7th Generation Core chips -- are expected to ship this quarter. It is a highly anticipated successor to Intel's Skylake chips, with performance and multimedia improvements.Asus announced the Transformer 3 tablet PC with Kaby Lake in June but didn't share specific chip details. Lenovo and Acer will announce new Kaby Lake PCs at the IFA trade show starting at the end of the month.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HP has dabbled in many operating systems over the last few years, but the company always seems to come back to Windows.The company is building a mobile device strategy around Windows 10 Mobile and is slowly cutting its reliance on Android, once high on the company's list for tablets and PCs.HP has discontinued low-cost Android tablets, and two remaining enterprise tablets feature aging hardware and an old version of the OS. Company executives have said future mobile devices will be built around Windows 10 unless there's significant new demand for Android.HP is following the lead of Dell, which has cut Android devices to focus on Windows. Lenovo, meanwhile, still sells Android tablets and smartphones but is cutting its number of Android tablets and increasing its number of Windows 2-in-1s.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
AMD's move three years ago to rely on ARM for server chips is turning out to be a big mistake.The company is putting its faith back in x86 chips as it seeks a reboot in servers, a market in which the company was once a big player. Riddled with chip delays and abandoned projects, AMD has downgraded ARM in its server strategy.Instead of ARM-based servers, AMD is relying again on x86 chips, this time based on the promising Zen architecture, to take market share from Intel.AMD shipped its first ARM-based Opteron A-series processors early this year after delays. The first server chips based on a custom ARM-based core, called K12 core, could be released next year, an AMD spokesman said, but the company's server strategy next year is centered on Zen and x86.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's Atom chips are on their way out of mobile devices, and the next generation of the chip line will instead be targeted toward drones, self-driving cars, and IoT devices.The new Atom chips will retain the line's focus on low power consumption, with an emphasis on graphics and visual computing. The chip line, to be announced next week at Intel Developer Forum, will be used to maneuver cars, drones, and robots and to also help them recognize objects.Many Atom mobile and server chips have been on Intel's chopping block. The troubled chip's future now is in the growing markets of IoT and virtual reality. The chips will integrate into devices with the company's 3D RealSense cameras, according to a technical session description at IDF. That points to the chips also being used in low-power virtual reality headsets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Agam Shah