Tuesday, January 28th 2020
Europe Readies its First Prototype of Custom HPC Processor
European Processor Initiative (EPI) is a Europe's project to kickstart a homegrown development of custom processors tailored towards different usage models that the European Union might need. The first task of EPI is to create a custom processor for high-performance computing applications like machine learning, and the chip prototypes are already on their way. The EPI chairman of the board Jean-Marc Denis recently spoke to the Next Platform and confirmed some information regarding the processor design goals and the timeframe of launch.
Supposed to be manufactured on TSMC's 6 nm EUV (TSMC N6 EUV) technology, the EPI processor will tape-out at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, and it is going to be heterogeneous. That means that on its 2.5D die, many different IPs will be present. The processor will use a custom ARM CPU, based on a "Zeus" iteration of Neoverese server core, meant for general-purpose computation tasks like running the OS. When it comes to the special-purpose chips, EPI will incorporate a chip named Titan - a RISC-V based processor that uses vector and tensor processing units to compute AI tasks. The Titan will use every new standard for AI processing, including FP32, FP64, INT8, and bfloat16. The system will use HBM memory allocated to the Titan processor, have DDR5 links for the CPU, and feature PCIe 5.0 for the inner connection.
Source:
NextPlatform
Supposed to be manufactured on TSMC's 6 nm EUV (TSMC N6 EUV) technology, the EPI processor will tape-out at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, and it is going to be heterogeneous. That means that on its 2.5D die, many different IPs will be present. The processor will use a custom ARM CPU, based on a "Zeus" iteration of Neoverese server core, meant for general-purpose computation tasks like running the OS. When it comes to the special-purpose chips, EPI will incorporate a chip named Titan - a RISC-V based processor that uses vector and tensor processing units to compute AI tasks. The Titan will use every new standard for AI processing, including FP32, FP64, INT8, and bfloat16. The system will use HBM memory allocated to the Titan processor, have DDR5 links for the CPU, and feature PCIe 5.0 for the inner connection.
20 Comments on Europe Readies its First Prototype of Custom HPC Processor
Also, about damn time we start doing things ourselves. Especially things like this.
Should be interesting to see how this plays out....
However, it is planned to sell them as well (e.g. car AI is mentioned in the "strategy").
Today most countries design and produce some parts of strategic security systems, so making an EU-wide standard would be very welcome (making this cheaper and easier to implement).
I seriously doubt in this becoming a proper product at any point.This is an ARM-based chip and ARM is an European company (and within EU for 3 more days :) ).
Then we indebt ourselves to the bone to pay for imports of the (many) things we stopped making.
Then our governments spend billions of taxpayer money to secure the core tech they let fly in the first place.
Yes, it makes sense :(
I struggle to detect any leader with vision these days. Its all reactive management and short term gain.
Yes, SoftBank owns ARM.
But if you think ARM isn't European because it's owned by SoftBank, then SoftBank certainly isn't (entirely) Japanese. :)
i.e., it makes them feel good.
uhhh, Hi, Puddy Cat?:shadedshu:
uhhh, Homemade Pumpkin Cake?:banghead:
uhhh, I give up. :respect:
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I am sure their long term goal would be to take a swim into the market along side Cyrix and AMD. That wont be anytime soon.