Intel on Monday announced a new brawny HPC processor and a family of network fabric components that incorporates silicon photonics technology. The new chip, the next-generation of the Xeon Phi family, comes with up to 16 gigabytes of high-performance memory and more than 60 computing cores. The fabric lineup, called Omni Scale will include PCIe adapters, switches and software, as well as director switches that replace electrical transceivers with silicon photonics for improved speed and fewer cables. Intel is promising better performance and greater efficiency with the new tech — something it might need considering the introduction of ARM-plus-GPU-based chips into the HPC market that Intel presently dominates.
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