英特尔下一代服务器处理器开发重点——互连技术

虽然还未提供细节，但英特尔(Intel)已披露下一代服务器处理器的开发计划，证实了最近几星期以来业界人士的猜测：这家x86巨擘正在将新一代互连整合到未来的 Xeon 和 Atom 服务器处理器中，以满足从超级计算机到微型服务器在内的多种应用。 上周，超微(AMD)也发布了来自并购新创公司所获得的 Freedom Fabric 技术。 AMD期望让这种互连技术成为服务器CPU的业界标准，甚至可用在新兴的ARM-based服务器SoC上。 互连(Interconnects)──有时也称之为fabrics──意思是用来连接大量服务器中的数百至数千颗处理器的关键技术。它们被用在全球最强大的超级计算机、大型云端运算资料中心、微型服务器，以及Web服务器之中。 自去年起，英特尔陆续收购了三家公司──今年四月，英特尔以1.4亿美元收购Cray公司的互连部门；一月份以1.25亿美元收购QLogic公司的Infiniband芯片业务；去年七月则收购Fulcrum，收购价并未披露。在这三椿收购之后，业界都认为，英特尔即将大举进军互连领域了。 “我们正在将收购而来的相关技术整合到处理器的开发中，”英特尔技术运算部门总经理Raj Hazra说。“我们认为，就像一些业界人士所说的，这种整合可能会在这个十年内提早发生，而且可能会整合到exscale超级计算机中。” 全新英特尔互连的目标之一，是进一步拓展应用层面。在低阶领域，它可以用在微型服务器，连接成千上百个运作速率在数十GB/s，延迟少于1,000ns的处理器。而在高阶市场，它可用来连接数百到上千个速率达数百GB/s，延迟少于数十ns的处理器。 英特尔的互连技术将用在 , Xeon Phi 和 Atom 等服务器处理器之中。目前尚不清楚英特尔何时公布最新的互连和CPU应用等信息，但很有可能会在本周的开发者论坛(IDF)上宣布。 “我们还未完成路线图的规划，”Hazra说。 在英特尔内部，定义互连这项工作似乎也加入了来自软件公司和系统整合商的协助。“我们拥有强大的软件生态系统，”他说。 该技术很可能会在英特尔用于其专用处理器总线的现有 Quick Path Interconnect 上再加入一组新的功能层。该技术可以使用现有的以太网络、 Infiniband ，以及目前被提议作为英特尔竞争标准、针对ARM服务器SoC的RapidIO。 “我们已经看到了所有潜在解决方案，以及自己的优缺点，” Hazra说。 英特尔的合作伙伴SeaMicro在今年初被AMD收购。“我们知道他们的互连技术，他们的技术对微型服务器相当有吸引力，但我不大清楚他们之后的进展或变化，”他说。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译： Joy Teng 参考英文原文：Intel preps interconnect for server CPUs ，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} Intel preps interconnect for server CPUs Rick Merritt SAN JOSE, Calif. – Intel Corp. is not providing details, but it has disclosed plans that confirm industry speculation of recent weeks: The x86 giant is developing a next-generation interconnect it will integrate in future Xeon and Atom server processors addressing a range of uses from supercomputers to microservers. The news is timed to compete with an announcement later on Monday (Sept. 10) from Advanced Micro Devices about the Freedom Fabric it acquired with startup SeaMicro. AMD is expected to try to make that interconnect an industry standard for its server CPUs, and probably those of emerging ARM-based server SoCs. Interconnects--sometimes called fabrics--are key to linking tens to hundreds of thousands of processors in a broad range of servers. They are used in everything from the world’s most powerful supercomputers to large cloud computing data centers and microservers, dense chassis packed with processors generally used as Web servers. The industry has been anticipating an Intel move into interconbnects after three recent acquisitions. In April, Intel bought an interconnect group from Cray for $140 million. In January, it acquired the Infiniband chip business of QLogic for $125 million, and in July 2011 it bought Fulcrum for an undisclosed sum. “We are putting a salable fabric into the processor using the assets we have with our recent acquisitions,” said Raj Hazra, general manager of Intel’s technical computing group. “We think this integration happens much sooner than end of decade as some people have suggested, tying it to exascale supercomputers,” he said. The new Intel interconnect aims to cover the waterfront in applications. At the low end, it could be used in microservers to link a hundred or more processors at tens of GBytes/second with latencies of less than 1,000 nanoseconds. At the high end, it ultimately will scale up to linking hundreds of thousands of processors at hundreds of GBytes/second at latencies measured in tens of nanoseconds. The interconnect will appear in Xeon, Xeon Phi and Atom processors geared for such servers. It’s not clear when Intel will relesase details of the new interconnect and CPUs using it, although some details may emerge from this week’s Intel Developer Forum. “We haven’t finished the road map planning,” said Hazra. Most of the work defining the interconnect appears to be going on inside Intel with the help of a few software companies and systems integrators. “We have strong software ecosystem,” he said. The technology likely will emerge as a set of new capabilities layered on to the exsiting Quick Path Interconnect Intel uses as its proprietary processor bus. The technology may use elements of existing Ethernet, Infiniband and proprietary interconnects inclouding RapidIO, now being proposed as a competing standard for ARM server SoCs. “We’ve looked at all the potential solutions and their pros and cons,” Hazra said. Intel collaborated with SeaMicro on the startup's Atom- and Xeon-based server designs until AMD bought the startup earlier this year. “We know what their fabric was and it was interesting for a microserver class products line, but I have no idea where it has evolved,” he said.