Tilera
Encyclopedia
Tilera Corporation is a fabless
semiconductor
company focusing on scalable multicore embedded processor
design. The company is currently shipping multiple processors, including the TILE64
, TILEPro64
, and the TILEPro36, TILE-Gx36, TILE-Gx16 and TILE-Gx9. The company has announced its TILE-Gx100 and TILE-Gx64 TILE-Gx
microprocessors that will be shipping in 2012.
led a team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
to develop scalable multi-processor system built out of large numbers of single chip processors. Alewife machines
integrated both shared memory and user-level message passing for inter-node communications.
In 1997, Dr. Agarwal proposed a follow-on project using a mesh technology to connect multiple cores
. The follow-on project, named RAW, commenced in 1997, and was supported by DARPA/NSF
's funding of tens of millions, resulting in the world's first 16-processor tiles multicore and proving the mesh and compiler technology.
Tilera was founded in October, 2004, by Agarwal, Devesh Garg, and Vijay K. Aggarwal. Tilera launched its first product, the 64-core TILE64
processor, in August 2007. Tilera is venture funded by Bessemer Venture Partners
, Walden International, Columbia Capital and VentureTech Alliance, with strategic investments from Broadcom
, Quanta Computer and NTT
. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California and operates a research and development facility in Westborough, Massachusetts, USA. It has Sales and Support Centers in Shenzhen China, Yokohama Japan and in Europe.
. Tile is a multicore design
, with the cores communicating via a new mesh architecture, called iMesh, intended to scale to hundreds of cores on a single chip. As of September 2010, shipping versions of Tile have 36 or 64 cores. The goal is to provide a high-performance CPU, with good power efficiency, and with greater flexibility than special-purpose processors such as DSP
s. In October 2009, they announced a new chip TILE-Gx
100 based on 40nm technology that features up to 100 cores at 1.5 GHz. Other Gx family members will include 16, 36 and 64-core variants.
Their primary markets for this new chip which launched in October 2011, include:
The 100-core general purpose CPU consumes approximately 55 watt
s at full load
.
In October 2010 version 2.6.36 of the mainline Linux kernel
added support for the Tilera architecture.
Tilera also provides software development tools - designated the Multicore Development Environment (MDE) - for Tile and a line of boards built around the Tile processors.
The networking software company 6WIND
provides high-performance packet processing software for the TilePro64 platform.
On July 25, 2011, TilePro processor was found by Facebook to be 3-times more energy-efficient than Intel's x86, based on Facebook's experiments on servers using TilePro processor and Intel’s x86.
Fabless semiconductor company
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...
semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
company focusing on scalable multicore embedded processor
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
design. The company is currently shipping multiple processors, including the TILE64
TILE64
TILE64 is a multicore processor manufactured by Tilera. It consists of a mesh network of 64 "tiles", where each tile houses a general purpose processor, cache, and a non-blocking router, which the tile uses to communicate with the other tiles on the processor....
, TILEPro64
TILEPro64
TILEPro64 is a multicore processor manufactured by Tilera. It consists of a cache-coherent mesh network of 64 "tiles", where each tile houses a general purpose processor, cache, and a non-blocking router, which the tile uses to communicate with the other tiles on the processor.The short-pipeline,...
, and the TILEPro36, TILE-Gx36, TILE-Gx16 and TILE-Gx9. The company has announced its TILE-Gx100 and TILE-Gx64 TILE-Gx
TILE-Gx
TILE-Gx is a future multicore processor family by Tilera. It consists of a mesh network of up to 100 cores. It is to be produced by TSMC with 40 nm.*64-bit core *32 KB L1 I-cache, 32 KB L1 D-cache *256 KB L2 cache...
microprocessors that will be shipping in 2012.
History
In 1990, Dr. Anant AgarwalAnant Agarwal
Anant Agarwal is a computer architecture researcher. He is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also founded the Tilera corporation....
led a team of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
to develop scalable multi-processor system built out of large numbers of single chip processors. Alewife machines
Alewife (multiprocessor)
Alewife was a cache coherent multiprocessor developed in the early 1990s by a group led by Anant Agarwal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
integrated both shared memory and user-level message passing for inter-node communications.
In 1997, Dr. Agarwal proposed a follow-on project using a mesh technology to connect multiple cores
Symmetric multiprocessing
In computing, symmetric multiprocessing involves a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance. Most common multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture...
. The follow-on project, named RAW, commenced in 1997, and was supported by DARPA/NSF
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
's funding of tens of millions, resulting in the world's first 16-processor tiles multicore and proving the mesh and compiler technology.
Tilera was founded in October, 2004, by Agarwal, Devesh Garg, and Vijay K. Aggarwal. Tilera launched its first product, the 64-core TILE64
TILE64
TILE64 is a multicore processor manufactured by Tilera. It consists of a mesh network of 64 "tiles", where each tile houses a general purpose processor, cache, and a non-blocking router, which the tile uses to communicate with the other tiles on the processor....
processor, in August 2007. Tilera is venture funded by Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners is a private venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, New York, Massachusetts, Israel, China, and India.Bessemer Venture Partners is the longest-standing venture capital practice in the United States...
, Walden International, Columbia Capital and VentureTech Alliance, with strategic investments from Broadcom
Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los...
, Quanta Computer and NTT
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
, commonly known as NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked the 31st in Fortune Global 500, NTT is the largest telecommunications company in Asia, and the second-largest in the world in terms of revenue....
. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California and operates a research and development facility in Westborough, Massachusetts, USA. It has Sales and Support Centers in Shenzhen China, Yokohama Japan and in Europe.
Products
Tilera's primary product family is the Tile CPUCentral processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
. Tile is a multicore design
Symmetric multiprocessing
In computing, symmetric multiprocessing involves a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance. Most common multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture...
, with the cores communicating via a new mesh architecture, called iMesh, intended to scale to hundreds of cores on a single chip. As of September 2010, shipping versions of Tile have 36 or 64 cores. The goal is to provide a high-performance CPU, with good power efficiency, and with greater flexibility than special-purpose processors such as DSP
Digital signal processor
A digital signal processor is a specialized microprocessor with an architecture optimized for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing.-Typical characteristics:...
s. In October 2009, they announced a new chip TILE-Gx
TILE-Gx
TILE-Gx is a future multicore processor family by Tilera. It consists of a mesh network of up to 100 cores. It is to be produced by TSMC with 40 nm.*64-bit core *32 KB L1 I-cache, 32 KB L1 D-cache *256 KB L2 cache...
100 based on 40nm technology that features up to 100 cores at 1.5 GHz. Other Gx family members will include 16, 36 and 64-core variants.
Their primary markets for this new chip which launched in October 2011, include:
- Cloud ComputingCloud computingCloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
applications such as web indexingWeb indexingWeb indexing includes back-of-book-style indexes to individual websites or an intranet, and the creation of keyword metadata to provide a more useful vocabulary for Internet or onsite search engines...
, search engineSearch engineA search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
and cache acceleration servers - Networking equipment including intelligent routers, firewallsFirewall (computing)A firewall is a device or set of devices designed to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and is frequently used to protect networks from unauthorized access while permitting legitimate communications to pass....
, network test equipment, and forensic / data-mining applications - MultimediaMultimediaMultimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
applications such as videoconferencingVideoconferencingVideoconferencing is the conduct of a videoconference by a set of telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously...
, broadcast video serverVideo serverA video server is a computer based device dedicated to delivering video.Unlike personal computers, being multi-application devices, a video server is designed for one purpose; provisioning video, often for broadcasters. A professional grade video server records, stores, and playout of multiple...
s, and edge QAM systems - Wireless infrastructure such as 4G Node B Base Station, RNCRadio Network ControllerThe Radio Network Controller is a governing element in the UMTS radio access network and is responsible for controlling the Node Bs that are connected to it. The RNC carries out radio resource management, some of the mobility management functions and is the point where encryption is done before...
, and Media GatewayMedia gatewayA Media gateway is a translation device or service that converts digital media streams between disparate telecommunications networks such as PSTN, SS7, Next Generation Networks or PBX...
s
The 100-core general purpose CPU consumes approximately 55 watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s at full load
Load (computing)
In UNIX computing, the system load is a measure of the amount of work that a computer system performs. The load average represents the average system load over a period of time...
.
In October 2010 version 2.6.36 of the mainline Linux kernel
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
added support for the Tilera architecture.
Tilera also provides software development tools - designated the Multicore Development Environment (MDE) - for Tile and a line of boards built around the Tile processors.
The networking software company 6WIND
6WIND
6WIND S.A. is a privately held company that provides packet processing software used by OEM companies to meet both the wire-speed performance and time-to-market requirements of mobile infrastructure, network security, high-frequency trading and deep packet inspection applications...
provides high-performance packet processing software for the TilePro64 platform.
On July 25, 2011, TilePro processor was found by Facebook to be 3-times more energy-efficient than Intel's x86, based on Facebook's experiments on servers using TilePro processor and Intel’s x86.
See also
- CalxedaCalxedaCalxeda is a start-up company that aims to provide ARM-based computers for the server market. Their selling point is a claimed reduction in energy consumption as well as better cost per throughput, compared to x86-based server manufacturers such as Intel...
- x86
- ARMARM architectureARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
- CPUCentral processing unitThe central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
- Intel CorporationIntel CorporationIntel Corporation is an American multinational semiconductor chip maker corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most...
- Advanced Micro DevicesAdvanced Micro DevicesAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
- Manycore
External links
- MIT startup raises multicore bar with new 64-core CPU, By Jon Stokes Date:August 20, 2007, Ars Technica
- MIT Startup Unveils New 64-Core CPU, Aug 20, 2007, Slashdot
- 64-way chip gains Linux IDE, dev cards, design wins, By Eric Brown, 2008-04-30, Linux for Devices
- The next big innovation in microprocessors: Sramana Mitra, Interview by Anant Agarwal, August 20, 2007, Sramana Mitra on Strategy