Intel’s 48-Core CPU Hints at Future Chips

Multicore processors are now de rigueur across a wealth of applications, from embedded systems to high-performance designs. But that hasn’t kept the world’s largest chipmaker sitting still: Its Intel Labs division continues to explore innovations in multicore design. HardwareCentral has the story on the latest results of that work.

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel Labs today demonstrated a 48-core processor design that it says will shape the direction of PC chips to come.

The new processor, which Intel calls a “Single-chip Cloud Computer,” or SCC for short, builds on many of the ideas first introduced with Intel Labs’ earlier 80-core processor, which it announced two years ago.

Innovations like the SCC and 80-core processor — both of which graduated from Intel’s Terascale project to build massive-scale processors — are meant to be experiments, not finished products.

“Could you replace a rack of these regular processors with a high-core count processor? I ask in an experimental sense, because this will not be a product — it will never be a product,” CTO Justin Rattner told an audience here. “But it does provide a rich area for research into future product.”

Read the full story at HardwareCentral