You read that title right: The computer scientists at UC Davis have created the world’s first 1,000-core processor, called KiloCore. Containing 621 million transistors, the processor can handle 1.78 trillion instructions per second. Straight up, that’s ridiculous. In a good way, mind you.
Bevan Baas, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Davis, led the team behind the chip architecture:
To the best of our knowledge, it is the world’s first 1,000-processor chip and it is the highest clock-rate processor ever designed in a university.
Each processor can handle tasks independently of other cores in the cluster, which drastically cuts down on energy usage as cores that are not in use are automatically shut off. The cores are fabricated by IBM on a 32nm CMOS node, with average clocks of 1.78GHz. Having a system with several cores running in parallel is useful when crunching through large datasets, as well as “wireless coding/decoding, video processing, encryption, and others.”
The KiloCore is said to be 100 times more efficient than a modern laptop CPU, handling 115 billion instructions per second while using only 0.7W of power. And this brings up the old argument that I’ve made many times on my podcast, Sovryn Tech, and here at the Dark Android Project: It’s really great that people are into having computers in their pockets, but everyone is missing out on taking advantage of the raw power that can be achieved with a desktop.
Hey, I know, 1000-core processors aren’t going be inside of consumer desktops any time soon, but it does make you wonder about all the bullshit we’re fed as far as developments in computer technology when the very people that create those developments (obviously not talking about the folks at UC Davis)–apps, services, etc.–are barely using quad-core computers, or if we’re lucky octa-cores. What a waste. We can make 1000-core machines, but the whole world is stuck in the past, effectively, because everyone is obsessed with “mobile this” and “mobile that” (and even when it comes to mobile, maybe Microsoft is the only company doing anything forward-thinking, ie: Continuum, liquid-cooled phones).
Anyway, at least we do now technically have a 1000-core processor out there. Perhaps a Cyrix for a new generation can come in and disrupt AMD, ARM, and Intel by delivering death on silicon to the masses…the KiloCore! Don’t worry, I now that’s not happening, but I’m still waiting for that computer that can finally play Crysis the way it was meant to be.
Carpe lucem!
