Scientists from the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy
of Sciences
recently presented
a multi-captive zhejiang chip with 256 cores. Researchers plan to scale the
design up to 1600-core chips using a whole crystal as a single computing
device.
With each new generation of chips, it is becoming increasingly difficult to
increase the density of transistors, so manufacturers are looking for other
ways to increase the performance of processors. This includes innovation in
architecture, an increase in the size of the crystal, multi-chip design, and
even chips for the entire crystal. The latter has only been achieved by the
American company Cerebras.
Chinese developers have already built a multi-chip design for 256 cores and
are exploring the possibilities of creating a chip for the entire crystal.
The Zhejiang Big Chip multi-heir design consists of 16 chiplets containing 16
RISC-V-V nuclei, connected to each other in a symmetrical multiprocessor
configuration using a crystal network, which allows chiplets to exchange
memory.
Each chiplet has several interfaces for communication with neighboring
chiplets via 2.5D-Internet. Researchers believe that the design has the
potential to scale up to 100 chiplets or up to 1600 nuclei.
Zhejiang chips are produced using a 22-nanometer technological process,
presumably by the company Semiconductor Manaufacturing International Corp.
(SMIC). The energy consumption of an assembly with 1600 nuclei is still
unknown, but in theory, this could significantly optimize energy consumption
and performance.
Multiple designs can be used to create processors for Exascale Supercomputers,
which are already being developed by AMD and Intel