Researchers create ultra-fast '1,000 core' processor, Intel also toys with the idea
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/1rzp_2ppH2NH8tHJG7EQ_w--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTQyMDtoPTI4MQ--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/XfbHvWLisz7SUNLjmNgD1Q--~B/aD0xNjc7dz0yNTA7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/12/1000-core-processor-12-28-2010-1293557404.jpg)
We've already seen field programmable gate arrays (or FPGAs) used to create energy efficient supercomputers, but a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow led by Dr. Wim Vanderbauwhede now say that they have "effectively" created a 1,000 core processor based on the technology. To do that, the researchers divvied up the millions of transistors in the FPGA into 1,000 mini-circuits that are each able to process their own instructions -- which, while still a proof of concept, has already proven to be about twenty times faster than "modern computers" in some early tests. Interestingly, Intel has also been musing about the idea of a 1,000 core processor recently, with Timothy Mattson of the company's Microprocessor Technology Laboratory saying that such a processor is "feasible." He's referring to Intel's Single-chip Cloud Computer (or SCC, pictured here), which currently packs a whopping 48 cores, but could "theoretically" scale up to 1,000 cores. He does note, however, that there are a number of other complicating factors that could limit the number of cores that are actually useful -- namely, Amdahl's law (see below) -- but he says that Intel is "looking very hard at a range of applications that may indeed require that many cores."
[Thanks, Andrew]