Intel has revealed that it is taking the next step in developing supercomputer products. The new server solution is called Knight’s Corner and it’s based on the MIC architecture, produced at the 22nm node and scales to more than 50 processor cores.
The development and industry design package for Intel’s Many Integrated Core architecture has started shipping to developers and partners to give them a chance to prepare themselves for the new miroarchitecture.
Intel says that most programs and calculations will still be most efficient on regular narrower server processors, Intel of course mentions the Xeon line-up, but says that Knight’s Corner will open up new possibilities for parallel workloads where the many cores will result in great performance.
The Intel MIC architecture will build on multiple research projects, such as Larrabee and the Single-chip Cloud Computer concept, where we already have seen samples of 48-core processors being shipped to partners.
Intel also reveals that the company will, together with Forschungszentrum Julich (FZJ) and ParTec, found and manage the ExaCluster Laboratory (ECL) in Julich, Germany. The laboratory will develop technologies, tools and methods for powering petaflops and exaflops system. ECL will be newest member of Intel Labs Europe.
Today already 82 percent of the world’s Top 500 supercomputers use Intel processors, something the processor giant hopes to improve further with Knight’s Corner.
