MIT Genius Stuffs 100 Processors Into Single Chip

MIT Genius Stuffs 100 Processors Into Single Chip

Forget dual-core and quad-core processors: A semiconductor company promises to pack 100 cores into a processor that can be used in applications that require hefty computing punch, like video conferencing, wireless base stations and networking. By comparison, Intel’s latest chips are expected to have just eight cores. With a revolutionary new chip architecture and programming tool set, Anant Agarwal of Tilera embedded the processing power of hundreds of cores on a single chip. Tilera’s technology addresses the three biggest challenges in today’s semiconductor market, offering a processor that is high-performance, power-efficient, and easy to program.
“This is a general-purpose chip that can run off-the-shelf programs almost unmodified,” says Anant Agarwal, chief technical officer of Tilera, the company that is making the 100-core chip. “And we can do that while offering at least four times the compute performance of an Intel Nehalem-Ex, while burning a third of the power as a Nehalem.”

Sunil Singh Negi
pgdm - II semester