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Ponte Vecchio: Intel launches the biggest ever silicon chip

Ponte Vecchio is Intel’s described ‘tour-de-force data centre GPU architecture’. And it is very powerful.

Intel's headquarters at Santa Clara. Image by Coolcaesar. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Intel's headquarters at Santa Clara. Image by Coolcaesar. (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Has Intel designed the world’s biggest chip? The company claims so and while some may dispute the concept, the technological feat is impressive.

Intel has put together what seems to be the most complex chip ever made. This is the 100 billion transistor Ponte Vecchio discrete graphics processor. The device is designed for high performance computing and artificial intelligence acceleration

Intel constructed the device with the inclusion of in excess of 100 billion transistors by using a combination of its own Intel 7 process together with TSMC’s N5 5nm. 5nm describes a technology node semiconductor manufacturing process.

The 5nm is the smallest design yet, based on the premise that smaller transistors are more power efficient, and they execute more calculations without getting too hot compared with slightly larger chips.

Discussing the new device and its future application, Raja Koduri, Senior vice president and General manager of the Intel’s Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group tells EE News: “Ponte Vecchio is our tour-de-force data centre GPU architecture with Intel’s highest ever compute density.” The name for the device – Ponte Vecchio – is a reference to a medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy.

Koduri places the success in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, adding: “Looking back at just the past year, technology was at the heart of how we all communicated, worked, played and coped through the pandemic. Enormous computing power proved crucial.”

As for the future, he says: “Looking ahead, we face a massive demand for compute – potentially a 1,000x need by 2025. That 1,000-times boost in four years is Moore’s Law to the power of five.”

Moore’s Law refers to the technology industry perception that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, though the cost of computers is halved.

Koduri  further discusses the complexity: “This is the most complex SoC Intel has ever built and a great example of our IDM 2.0 strategy come to life.”

“With this product, we are bringing to life our moon-shot project, the 100 billion-transistor device that delivers industry-leading FLOPs and compute density to accelerate artificial intelligence, high performance computing and advanced analytics workloads.”

The chip is undergoing trials in order to compute its density and ability to accelerate artificial intelligence, high performance computing (HPC), and advanced analytics workloads. Ponte Vecchio is set for general release in 2022.

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Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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