The annual @ieee_isscc#ISSCC22 conference is coming up next month and the presentation list is now live. Here are some of the talks I'm really looking forward to.
Session 2 is all CPUs, hoping to see if Intel says more about PVC and SPR 1/x
2/ This one is a bit out of left field. Intel is going to talk about ultra-low-voltage Bitcoin ASICs. The DS1 in this talk means there's going to be a demo of it (perhaps more than simulation work?)
3/ @tenstorrent is going to talk more about Wormhole, it's 3rd generation big 700mm2+ chip. Uses GDDR6 and 16 x 100 GbE for scale out - you can connect as many chips together in a 2D array to create the AI training chip you need with predicable on-chip/off-chip latency
4/ AMD going into details about the V-Cache implementation. Not sure how much new we'll get from this talk, but always hopeful. If they've deviated from TSMC's public offering, would be good to note.
5/ This one caught me by surprise. SK Hynix showing off their HBM3, using a 12-hi stack of 24 GB at almost 900 GB/s bandwidth per stack. That's almost 1 TB/s per stack of bandwidth. I'll take 6.
6/6 Last one, it's a doozy. Intel showcasing another design using Intel 4. This is a reconfigurable AES engine, so we're talking fractions of a mm2, so it's unclear if this is simulation work or actual in-silicon work. Hopefully a chip, to showcase Intel's use of EUV
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Looking at the two new Sunway papers up for the Gordon Bell. None of them are Exaflop on FP64, for clarification.
The Quantum paper showcases 1.2EF using FP32, 4.4EF using mixed, on 41.9M cores. No FP64.
The nuclear paper showcases 298PF using FP64 on 40.4M cores.
It's worth noting that the definition of 'core' is being stretched here. Each chip is listed as having 390 cores - that's 6 groups of (8x8 compute elements + 1 management element). The management element has 512-bit SIMD, unclear what the compute elements can do with vectors
I suspect the management element also acts as the front-end for the compute elements in compute element-only mode.
So what we're really counting here is just execution ports that aren't AGUs or L/S
The Intel Advanced Architecture Development Group (AADG) is responsible for creating the next leap in Microprocessor Design and the future of the x86 environment at Intel by helping to solve the ‘Innovator’s Dilemma’ when it comes to a new core design for Intel.
This dilemma can be simplified into finding the answers to questions like:
Now I've had some time for the @Intel announcements yesterday to sink in, here's my brain dump.
A number of analysts were quite reserved when @PGelsinger joined Intel, stating that no matter what he did, we wouldn't see it for years. I said straight away that Pat can steer the intent of the company as soon as he sat in the seat. Today is a clear message
That being said, Intel last week is still the same as Intel today. Saying stuff doesn't mean much unless Intel does pivot, and it will take a few years to enable that pivot, but there will be a strong undercurrent of things to come throughout, with a continuous focus on 2023
For what it's worth, Intel has been using Arm cores in its products for years. Some we know about, others we do not. Some Intel products contain solely Arm cores.
As for their own custom cores, Intel has had an Arm architecture license for around a decade, if not longer.
How much has Intel used that architecture licence? Golden question. Given that Arm's own cores go from the M0 for microcontrol, up to the X1 for performance, and R-series for real time, and lots in-between, it's hard to say.
A modern CPU has a lot of microcontrollers.
Just don't ask what secret sauce they already add for big customers.
Just found out that the company who installed my new boiler last year, has disappeared. They weren't the best price, but reasonable and 10-year warranty and free inspections. Worksmanship was poor though, and now that 10-year warranty and free inspections are worthless
I emailed them a couple months after installation to come back and fix things (holes in walls). No response. Just went into my loft and they've left old pipes everywhere, didn't clean up after themselves, empty boxes, thrown around the insulation
It seems like almost everything we've got other people to do on this house has been terrible. The stuff we've done ourselves is reasonable. But we only have limited skills and time.