Intel reveals details of its Omni-Path Architecture interconnect
One of the toughest challenges in computing is building large-scale systems like those used in the world of high-performance computing (HPC). Currently, such systems typically communicate between nodes over an interconnect like Ethernet or Infiniband, but Intel intends to replace those technologies with a new interconnect known as Omni-Path Architecture. This week at the Hot Interconnects conference, the firm is unveiling detailed information about how Omni-Path works and how it will be deployed alongside Intel's other products.
Omni-Path is interesting in part because of the intense difficulty of the problem it has to address: allowing the hundreds or thousands of nodes in a supercomputer to communicate with one another at high speed while keeping delays at a minimum. Intel says Omni-Path is meant to scale from "small clusters to the largest supercomputers." To make that happen, the chipmaker has taken on the task of designing nearly every piece of the puzzle needed to establish a new interconnect fabric, ...