Intel Tera-scale Computing Research Program

The Intel® Tera-scale Computing Research Program is a worldwide effort to advance computing technology for the next decade. future applications more compelling and immersive.

• Latest news: Single Chip Cloud Computer
• Tera-scale computing research vision
• Featured research projects   

The Single-chip Cloud Computer

Intel Labs has created an experimental “Single-chip Cloud Computer,” a research microprocessor containing the most Intel Architecture cores ever integrated on silicon CPU chip – 48 cores. It incorporates technologies intended to scale multi-core processors to 100 cores and beyond, such as an on-chip network, advanced power management technologies and support for “message-passing.” Architecturally, the chip resembles a cloud of computers integrated into silicon. Click here to learn more.

Tera-scale Computing Research Vision

By scaling multi-core architectures to 10s to 100s of cores and embracing a shift to parallel programming, we aim to improve performance, increase energy-efficiency, and make
"Tera" means 1 trillion, or 1,000,000,000,000. Our vision is to create platforms capable performing of trillions of calculations per second (teraflops) on trillions of bytes of data (terabytes).  

Hardware Research Vision

• Scalable multi-core architectures which integrate streamlined processor cores and accelerators using a fast, energy-efficient, modular core-to-core infrastructure.
  Examples: 80-core prototype, Tera-scale Emulator, Dynamic Thermal Management, Task Queues.
   
• Memory sharing and stacking to provide a high bandwidth, flexible, cache & memory hierarchy which supports many simultaneous threads fairly and efficiently.
  Examples: 3D Stacking, Cache Quality of Service.
   
• High Bandwidth I/O and Communications which balance the compute demands with I/O and network demands within the platform power and cost budgets.
  Examples: High-speed Copper I/O, Silicon Photonics, I/O Accelerators. 

Software Research Vision

• Model-based applications which use tera-scale capabilities to comprehend data, make smarter decisions, and make visual experiences look, act, and feel real. Read this white paper to learn more.
  Examples: Immersive Connected Experiences, Ray Tracing, Physical Modeling, Media Mining and Enhancment.
   
• Parallel programming tools that empower the ordinary programmer to develop applications that use parallelism with scalability & performance, safety & reliability.
  Examples: Transactional Memory, Accelerator Exoskeleton, Ct Data-Parallel Programming.
   
• Thread-aware execution environments that provide real-time performance & power management across cores and scale with increasing thread and core counts.
  Examples: Many-core Run Time, Tera-scale Virtual Machine.