Multi Core Roadmap

Dual Core Processors

Dual Core

• This term refers to integrated circuit (IC) chips that contain two complete physical computer processors (cores) in the same IC package.

•Typically, this means that two identical processors are manufactured so they reside side-by-side on the same die. It is also possible to (vertically) stack two separate processor die and place them in the same IC package.

•Each of the physical processor cores has its own resources (architectural state, registers, execution units, etc.).

•The multiple cores on-die may or may not share several layers of the on-die cache.

Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 965Specifications & Features•3.73GHz Dual Core Processor •1066MHz "Quad-Pumped" front side bus •.065-micron manufacturing process •Hyper-Threading Technology •4MB on-chip, full-speed L2 cache - 2MB for each core •Intel EM64T Extensions - 64-bit computing •Execute Disable Bit - For enhanced security

•1.20 - 1.33V operating voltage range 95 - 130 watts TPD (Thermal Design Power)

•Die Size: Approximately 140mm2 Approximately 376M Transistors

(cont)

•We should also note that the Pentium Extreme Edition 965 has full support for Intel's Virtualization technology, which gives users the ability to run multiple operating systems in independent environments,

• full support for EM64T to run 64-bit operating systems, and the Execute Disable Bit to prevent certain types of malware driven buffer-overflow attacks.

•Red indicates dual core speeds vs single core

Multi Core

•The multi core system is an extension to the dual core system except that it would consist of more than 2 processors.

•The current trends in processor technology indicate that the number of processor cores in one IC chip will continue to increase.

•If we assume that the number of transistors per processor core remains relatively fixed, it is reasonable to assume that the number of processor cores could follow Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors per a certain area on the chip will double approximately every 18 months.

• The optimal number of processors is yet to be determined, but will probably change over time as software adapts to effectively use many processors, simultaneously.

•However, a software program that is only capable of running on one processor (or very few processors) will be unable to take full advantage of future processors that contain many processors cores. For example, an application running on a 4-processor system with each socket containing quad-core processors has 16 processor cores available to schedule 16 program threads simultaneously.

• At the Intel Developer Forum Intel also publicly announced its intention to develop and manufacture multi-core processors in its Itanium Processor Family.

OS Support

Software Licensing Models•In order for multiprocessor systems to be effective the operating system must be able to detect multiple processors and provide a mechanism to schedule separate processes and/or threads on the physical and logical processors present.

•Microsoft provides several versions of Windows that have this capability, as do many Unix/Linux-based operating systems

Price/Performance

•There are many factors that affect the cost of processors and computer systems and therefore affect the price that a computer system vendor will charge for a system.

•Traditional dual processor systems require two separate processors in two sockets. Both may be physically located on one main computer board or they may each have their own separate board. Using separate boards may make systems more modular (and possibly easier to maintain). •Dual processor systems provide excellent performance because both processors can operate independently since each has their own computing resources.

•Power consumption goes down because the electrical pathway between chips has been dramatically reduced. •Dual core systems are capable of taking advantage of parallelism for improving performance rather than trying to increase performance of a single thread using frequency bumps and processor complexity. •Since power consumption increases exponentially with processor speed so a small drop in processor speed allows significant savings in power consumption..

Clock Speed:

•It is the flattening of the clock speed curve that some are reasoning why a shift to dual core?

•Some have surmised that AMD and INTEL have hit clock speed walls and another route is being taken to continue the performance curve and stay top of mind with new product releases.• The problem with winding up clock speeds is heat. •At present the processor engine can operate at only so much RPM before the engine will seize.

• Heat is the enemy of any processor and high clock speeds mean high heat and that means errors. A Windows PC running at 10GHz isn't much good if it can't make it past booting up before crashing.

•That heat comes from power. It takes a lot of juice to crank up a processor to high clock speeds and a processor with that much electricity running around the die is prone to noise. It's not audible noise like a high RPM cooling fan but electrical noise otherwise akin to interference.

• The pathways on a processor are microscopically close together. The more power that runs through these pathways due to the requirement of higher clock speeds means that there will be a small amount of electrical radiation from one pathway to the next.

•That leakage could corrupt the data in another pathway. Corrupted data means errors which means a program could get cranky.

DUAL-CORE SOFTWARE LICENSING

•Many major software companies, including Microsoft and Sun, have publicly stated that a dual-core microprocessor will require only a single software license.

•Other companies, particularly Oracle, are hazier on that issue, and haven't yet made a definitive statement as to whether you'll need a dual-processor license to use a dual-core chip.

•But for every piece of consumer desktop software that I know of, and all

•Microsoft server operating systems and applications, users will be able deploy dual-core microprocessors for the same licensing costs that they currently incur. While that's not a big deal for the desktop, that could be a huge savings for multi-core servers.

Software

The next big question is: How do application developers take advantage of dual-core processors?

Answer: The same way you exploit multi-chip SMP, by instituting threading. Programmatically, a dual-core system implemented on a single microprocessor is identical to a dual-core system that uses two single-core microprocessors.

•As long as the operating system's scheduler is thread-aware, it can allocate threads and processes efficiently. All modern versions of Linux, Solaris, and Windows are completely thread-aware.

•Within specific applications, today's best practices already suggest that you code in threads, whether you're writing native code, or managed code running in a Java Virtual Machine or on the .NET Common Language Runtime.

AMD64 Dual Core Physical Design

• 90nm– Approximately same die size as 130nm single-core AMD Opteron processor*– ~205 million transistors*• 95 watt power envelope– Fits into 90nm power infrastructure• Socket 940 compatible*Based on current revisions of the design

One die with 2 CPU cores

each core has its own 1MB L2 cache

up to 16 gigabytes of DDR400

Quad-Core Chips

AMD to Demo Quad-Core Chips in Mid-2006 [UPDATED].AMD’s Quad-Core Processors to Show Up Soon

Advanced Micro Devices’ quad-core processors will be demonstrated as early as in the middle of this year and, perhaps, will be unveiled even earlier than expected according to some analysts. The forthcoming chips with four processing engines will be demonstrated on the next-generaion AMD server platforms that will ship this year.

Server roadmaps shown by company executives confirmed that the company's Opteron processor will move to a quad-core architecture beginning in 2007, together with the ability to scale to 32 processors and above. Similar roadmaps presented for the company's desktop processor roadmap lacked the quad-core disclosure, however, which could indicate that quad-core, AMD-based PCs will arrive in 2008 or later.

AMD is also eyeing "cluster based multithreading," a technology specifically designed for large enterprise clusters. The technology would allow other microprocessors to share specific blocks on the chip, such as the floating-point unit. Designing this technology in will cost an additional 50 percent in die resources, but yield an additional 80 percent improvement in performance, Moore said.

Although AMD currently manufactures its microprocessors at a single fab, a second, Fab 36, is nearly complete next door to AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany. Scheduled to come on line early next year, the fab will initially produce 90-nm wafers but quickly shift over to 65-nm lines, said Daryl Ostrander, senior vice president of logic and manufacturing.

Intel Quad Core Processors

Just as the bragging rights for dual-core chip supremacy are dying down, Intel gave the first glimpse of a quad-core chip coming next year. Clovertown, a four-core processor, will start shipping to computer manufacturers late this year and hit the market in early 2007. Clovertown will be made for dual-processor servers, which means that these servers will essentially be eight-processor servers (two processors x four cores each).

Core expansion will be a dominant theme for Intel over the next few years, said Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner. By the end of the decade, chips with tens of cores will be possible, while in 10 years, it's theoretically possible that chips with hundreds of cores will come out, he added.

Multiplying the number of cores brings distinct advantages

• First, it cuts down overall energy consumption for equivalent levels of performance. If the recent Core Duo chips released for notebooks from Intel had only one core, the chips would consume far more power, he said. •Integrating processor cores into the same piece of silicon or same processor package also increases performance by reducing the data pathways "To go from core to core can be a matter of nanoseconds," Rattner said. "As soon as you move cores together you get an automatic improvement in available bandwidth."

Nonetheless, adding cores requires careful planning. Energy efficiency, data input/output and memory latency (the time it takes data to go from memory and the processor and vice versa) will be major issues with each level of core expansion.

The 45-nanometer process is right on time, according to Intel. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip giant has created test chips made on the 45-nanometer process and will likely begin shipping processors, flash, and other chips based on that process in the second half of 2007, according to Mark Bohr, director of process architecture and integration at Intel.

One clear part of the process, however, is that Intel will use "dry," or standard, lithography techniques for 45-nanometer chips. Lithography is the art of drawing circuit patterns on chips through optical and chemical processes. "We are committed to dry lithography for this (the test chips) and manufacturing," said Bohr.