pixar @home

Intel has announced that they are researching a new processor that will feature 80 cores. It will basically be run like a high performance computing cluster (the things that Pixar uses to render their movies). Think of it as 80 4GHz processors connected with 5-port 80 GB/s routers (see diagram).

80 processors that can go active or sleep independantly, and each have independant access to memory that can be dynamically allocated. They can spread use so that no one processor gets too hot. They can each go to sleep or become active to save power. Thanks to those features, the memory can also be stacked directly on top of the processors, making for direct, low-latency connections.

Cool.