At SC11, Intel unveiled its next gen Xeon processor-based and Intel Many Integrated Core (Intel MIC)-based platforms designed for high-performance computing (HPC).
The Intel Xeon processor E5 family is the world’s first server processor to support full integration of the PCI Express 3.0 specification, which is estimated to double the interconnect bandwidth over the PCIe 2.0 specification while enabling lower power and higher density server implementations. New fabric controllers taking advantage of the PCI Express 3.0 specification will allow more efficient scaling of performance and data transfer with the growing number of nodes in HPC supercomputers. Intel calculates that the Intel Xeon E5 will delivers up to 2.1 times more performance in raw FLOPS (Floating Point Operations Per Second as measured by Linpack) and up to 70 percent more performance using real-HPC workloads compared to the previous generation of Intel Xeon 5600 series processor.
“Knights Corner,” the first commercial Intel MIC architecture product, will be manufactured using Intel’s latest 3-D Tri-Gate 22nm transistor process and will feature more than 50 cores. The Intel MIC products are aimed at highly parallel workloads and will provide compatibility with existing x86 programming model and tools. http://www.intel.com
