Dan Reed, Director of Scalable Computing and Multicore at Microsoft Research, predicts four architectural directions in the evolution of manycore chips and development software.
“The first is the cookie cutter homogeneous multicore design, exemplified by today’s Intel and AMD flagship x86 offerings, along with similar homogeneous multicore designs from SUN (Niagara) and IBM (Power5-7). Tilera’s TILE64 and Intel’s Larrabee are other examples of this approach, combining standard cores.”
“The second is ISA-compatible homogeneous, but performance heterogeneous multicore. In this case, one combines, for example, a smaller number of complex, out-of-order cores with a larger number of simpler, in-order cores.”
“The third is functional heterogeneity, currently exemplified by chips such as the IBM Cell, AMD’s announced Fusion chip and a host of embedded and domain-specific chips.”
“The fourth is what I call non-traditional architectures that embody more radical alternatives. One great example of this class is Doug Burger’s TRIPS system, based on data graph execution.”
