Intel Tera-Scale

Intel Tera-Scale is a research program by Intel that focuses on development in Intel processors and platforms that utilize the inherent parallelism of emerging visual-computing applications. Such applications require teraFLOPS of parallel computing performance to process terabytes of data quickly. Parallelism is the concept of performing multiple tasks simultaneously. Utilizing parallelism will not only increase the efficiency of computer processing units (CPUs), but also increase the bytes of data analyzed each second. In order to appropriately apply parallelism, the CPU must be able to handle multiple threads and to do so the CPU must consist of multiple cores. The conventional amount of cores in consumer grade computers are 2–8 cores while workstation grade computers can have even greater amounts. However, even the current amount of cores aren't great enough to perform at teraFLOPS performance leading to an even greater amount of cores that must be added. As a result of the program, two prototypes have been manufactured that were used to test the feasibility of having many more cores than the conventional amount and proved to be successful.

Teraflops Research Chip (Polaris) is an 80-core prototype processor developed by Intel in 2007. It represents Intel's first public attempt at creating a Tera-Scale processor. The Polaris processor requires to be run at 3.13 GHz and 1V in order to maintain its teraFLOP name. At its peak performance, the processor is capable of 1.28 teraFLOP.

Single-chip Cloud Computer is another research processor developed by Intel in 2009. This processor consists of 48 P54C cores connected in a 6x4 2D-mesh.

Parallelism is the concept of performing multiple tasks simultaneously, effectively reducing the time needed to perform a given task. The Tera-Scale research program is focused on the concept of utilizing many more cores than conventional to increase performance with parallelism. Based on their previous experience with increased core counts on CPUs, doubling the number of cores was able to nearly double the performance with no increase in power. With a greater amount of cores, there are possibilities of improved energy efficiency, improved performance, extended lifetimes and new capabilities. Tera-Scale processors would improve energy efficiency by being able to "put to sleep" cores that are unneeded at the time while being able to improve performance by intelligently redistributing workloads to ensure an even workload spread across the chip. Extended lifetimes are also capable by tera-scale processors due to the possibility of having reserve cores that could be brought online when a core fails in the processor. Lastly, the processors would gain new capabilities and functionality as dedicated hardware engines, such as graphics engines, could be integrated.

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