If you though the 10-core Broadwell-E is excessive, allow us to introduce to you the KiloCore, the world’s first 1,000-core processor.
Developed by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of California, Davis, and fabricated by IBM using their 32nm CMOS technology, the KiloCore is a CPU that comes with 1,000 cores. This isn’t just your standard run-of-the-mill processor of course as it comes with the ability to shut down individual cores. The chip can also handle 115 billion instructions per second while using 0.7W of power, making it highly energy efficient as well.
Applications for the KiloCore are centered around tasks such as wireless coding/decoding, video processing, encryption, and others involving large amounts of parallel data such as scientific data applications and datacenter record processing.
It is highly unlikely that the KiloCore will be available for purchase. That said, some of the tech behind it, such as the ability to conserve energy by shutting down individual cores, could eventually make its way to mainstream processors as well. Whatever the case, the KiloCore is pretty much the mother of all processors right now. Only time will tell if anyone is crazy enough to develop a 2,000-core processor.
Source: Science Daily, University of California – Davis
