Intel, Horse Creek will use the new and powerful 7nm RISC-V P550

Intel

SiFive, a leading chip design company based on the RISC-V open source architecture, today announced its new line of SiFive Performance chips that support 64-bit operating systems, such as Linux. The company claims that the P550 processors are the fastest RISC-V cores on the market and offer superior performance to ARM's Cortex-A75 chips in terms of efficiency in relation to the occupied area. Unsurprisingly, Intel reportedly offered $ 2 billion to buy the bold startup, as well as announcing that it would adopt the designs for its future Horse Creek platform. Intel hasn't shared many details about the latter yet, but as it will use its 7nm production node, it is possible it will only hit the market in 2022 or 2023.

RISC-V is more commonly used in microcontrollers and small and simple chips, gaining some popularity popularity in the industry. SiFive's Performance Series is an application processor-class design, which means the chips have a memory management unit (MMU) that allows an operating system to run, in this case Linux (although that doesn't mean that it is a general-purpose machine). This is preferable to real-time operating systems (RTOS) commonly used for embedded applications.

SiFive claims its new Performance P550 core is the highest performing RISC-V processor on the market, scoring SPECINt 2006 of 8.65 / GHz. The P550 can be equipped with up to four cores that can occupy the same silicon area as a single ARM Cortex-A75 core, but SiFive claims to beat the A75 in terms of performance. The P550 is based on SiFive's U84 microarchitecture with a thirteen-stage triple-issue out-of-order pipeline.

The Performance P270 is classified as an eight-stage dual-issue in-order processor supporting RISC-V Vector Extension v1.0, making it, according to SiFive, an ideal candidate to replace SIMD architectures. SiFive also offers its Recode software to translate existing SIMD software from existing “legacy” architectures to RISC-V vector assembly code.

In case you are interested in RISC-V designs, SiFive will hold a new webinar on next July 14, which you can register at at the following address.

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Intel forms Accelerated Computing, Software business units

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Chip giant Intel this afternoon said it will create two new business units, an Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group, and a Software and Advanced Technology Group. 

The former will focus on high-performance computing and also graphics technology, while the latter will 'drive Intel's vision for software,' the company said.

Former VMware CTO Greg Lavender will head the new software unit, while Raja Koduri, an intel vice president who has been running the company's GPU strategy, will become head of the Accelerated Computing unit.

© Provided by ZDNet Raja Koduri, a longtime industry veteran who has previously worked at Advanced Micro Devices and Apple, will become head of a new Acclerated Computing Systems and Graphics business unit. Intel

In addition, Intel said veteran networking business unit Sandra Rivera, will run the company's data center products, including Xeon chips and field-programmable gate arrays. 

Also: Intel CEO Gelsinger commits to being a 'world-class foundry business', two new factories in Arizona

Finally, Nick McKeown, an Intel Senior Fellow who came to the company with Intel's 2019 acquisition of his startup, Barefoot Networks, will run the chip maker's networking efforts starting next month. 

© Provided by ZDNet Sandra Rivera, who ran Intel's networking products, will head up a new Datacenter and AI unit, with responsibility for Xeon server chips, but also for leading all of Intel's AI strategy. Intel

The company is combining its networking efforts with its Internet of Things business unit and its Connectivity Group into one organization known as the Network and Edge Group. 

The appointments follow Pat Gelsinger taking the CEO spot in January of this year, and promising to renovate and revive the company's flagging chip-making efforts. 

Intel faces increasing pressure from competitor Advanced Micro Devices, which has been taking market share in PC and server microprocessors, and from Nvidia, which is now targeting Intel's Xeon dominance with a promised server CPU called 'Grace.'

Said Gelsinger in prepared remarks, 'By putting Sandra, Raja, Nick and Greg – with their decades of technology expertise – at the forefront of some of our most essential work, we will sharpen our focus and execution, accelerate innovation, and unleash the deep well of talent across the company.'