Intel shows off a maths defying 8-core chip with 528 threads and optical interconnects

pcgamer.com:

Despite reports it is killing Hyperthreading in its upcoming desktop processors, Intel has shown off a new chip with an unfeasible number of threads coming off each core. Traditionally, you get two threads per core with the current simultaneous multi-threading on modern AMD and Intel CPUs, but this new optical chip is demonstrating 66 threads per core.

While optical interconnects and things like glass substrates are expected to become part of future chip manufacturing and packaging designs, it's this core design that really grabbed our attention. It's an 8-core chip. Pretty standard fare there, but it has 528 threads! That's 66 threads per core. Hyperthreading? More like super-mega-ultra-hyperthreading.

The annual Hot Chips conference took place this week. It's a forum for industry participants to discuss their latest and greatest tech, and give us a peek at what to expect in the future.

Serve The Home attended Hot Chips and reported on a CPU project presented by Intel. This chip was interesting for more than one reason. Firstly, the chip in question showed off a direct mesh to mesh photonic fabric. This technology could evolve to become be the future of advanced package interconnects, especially as the industry moves away from monolithic designs. The need for faster and lower latency chip or tile interconnects will become ever more important.

But optical tech isn't just for inter die communication. According to Intel, the tech can be used for multi processor communication, even between racks via a HyperX optical network, making this a very promising solution for highly scalable parallel workloads.

The chip in question isn't some exotic Frankenstein either. Apart from the optical router dies, it's quite similar to chips