Tile processors
for
computer hardware, are
multicore
A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such ...
or
manycore
Manycore processors are special kinds of multi-core processors designed for a high degree of parallel processing, containing numerous simpler, independent processor cores (from a few tens of cores to thousands or more). Manycore processors are use ...
chips that contain one-dimensional, or more commonly, two-dimensional arrays of identical tiles. Each tile comprises a compute unit (or a processing engine or CPU), caches and a switch. Tiles can be viewed as adding a switch to each core, where a core comprises a compute unit and caches.
In a typical Tile Processor configuration, the switches in each of the tiles are connected to each other using one or more
mesh networks.
[ doi:10.1109/MM.2007.89] The
Tilera
Tilera Corporation was a fabless semiconductor company focusing on manycore embedded processor design. The company shipped multiple processors, including the TILE64, TILE''Pro''64, and the TILE''Pro''36, TILE-Gx72, TILE-Gx36, TILE-Gx16 and TILE- ...
TILE''Pro''64, for example, contains 64 tiles. Each of the tiles comprises a CPU, L1 and L2 caches, and switches for several mesh networks.
Other processors in a tile configuration include SEAforth24,
Kilocore KC256,
XMOS xCORE microcontrollers, and some
massively parallel processor array A massively parallel processor array, also known as a multi purpose processor array (MPPA) is a type of integrated circuit which has a massively parallel array of hundreds or thousands of CPUs and RAM memories. These processors pass work to one an ...
s.
References
Central processing unit
Manycore processors
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