Intel 'Ponte Vecchio' Xe Graphics Architecture, 'Sapphire Rapids' Xeon CPUs, OneAPI Toolkit to Power Aurora Supercomputer

Intel has disclosed an early overview of plans for the upcoming Aurora supercomputer, which it is building in conjunction with Cray for the Argonne National Laboratory, run by the United Sates Department of Energy. It is due to be delivered in 2021. The key components of the Aurora supercomputer will be 'Ponte Vecchio' GPUs based on Intel's Xe graphics architecture, and Xeon Scalable CPUs from the 'Sapphire Rapids' generation. This is the first time that Ponte Vecchio has been disclosed publicly. To tie everything together, Intel will be offering its new OneAPI software toolkit, which is said to allow developers to easily work with multiple CPU, GPU, and accelerator architectures.

Starting with Ponte Vecchio, Intel has been publicising its upcoming integrated and discrete Xe graphics processors for some time now, and is definitely planning to target gamers and PC enthusiasts. However, the bigger picture is that Xe will be an overarching framework that can be customised for different products. Intel has now confirmed that its Xe architecture strategy will address segments right from ultra-mobile graphics to gaming, and workstation graphics, as well as high-performance exascale-level AI and deep learning applications.