- Oct 20, 2004
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With the exception of the on die mem (ie L1 & L2) is there any other reason processor cores are rectangular? I was just thinking about everyone's roadmaps...Intel showing 100s or 1000s of cores per processor in thier 10 year projections, and then there's the cell with lots of cores per proc.
What about a hexagonal shaped core? They would be able to implement a bus system between the cores on more sides, more real-estate for inter-core communication, so-to-speak. Plus, if the real estate avalible was maximized, the per-wafer-yield would increase (not by much). Or how about 1 hex of L2 in the middle, with 3 or 6 hex procs around the sides, sharing the L2?
Is this possible, or are there higher level concepts I'm missing?
What about a hexagonal shaped core? They would be able to implement a bus system between the cores on more sides, more real-estate for inter-core communication, so-to-speak. Plus, if the real estate avalible was maximized, the per-wafer-yield would increase (not by much). Or how about 1 hex of L2 in the middle, with 3 or 6 hex procs around the sides, sharing the L2?
Is this possible, or are there higher level concepts I'm missing?