Intel unveils Phi, and we don’t know how it’s pronounced either

• First-gen out by end of this year
• Fastest adopted new processing technology to power 44 systems

INTEL Corp continues to zoom in on the supercomputing space, announcing  that Intel Xeon Phi would be the new brand name for all future Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture-based  products.

Available by the end of 2012, the first generation of Intel Xeon Phi product family (coprocessors codenamed “Knights Corner”) will complement the existing Intel Xeon processor E5-2600/4600 product families and deliver new levels of performance for highly parallel workloads, the company said in a statement.

While the first generation primarily targets high performance computing (HPC), future generations of Intel Xeon Phi products will also address enterprise datacenters and workstations, Intel added.

The E5-2600 or Phi product family reached a new supercomputing milestone as the fastest adopted new processing technology to power 44 systems, Intel claimed, including three petascale-class supercomputers on the 39th edition of the Top500 list announced recently.

“The Intel Xeon processor E5 family is powering exponential performance gains in high performance computing and we’re proud that it is having such a profound impact on the industry as demonstrated by its presence inside 44 of the Top500 supercomputers,” said Raj Hazra, Intel vice president and general manager of the Technical Computing at Data Center and Connected Systems Group.

“As we add Intel Xeon Phi products to our portfolio, scientists, engineers and IT professionals will experience breakthrough levels of performance to effectively address challenges ranging from climate change to risk management,” he added.