Elbrus is a Russian-made processor. Technical characteristics and history of creation

Since the origin of computer technology in our country, the design of high-performance systems has been considered as one of the most important goals of Russian science. Since the 90s, studies have been associated with a fundamentally new condition - the need to implement new developments based on Russian microprocessors. As a result, Elbrus was created - a processor that is not inferior to the best foreign models in terms of its computing power.

History of creation

Currently, only a few countries in the world design computers on microprocessors of their own design - in the US, England, Japan and China. Obviously, within the framework of Russia's security and import substitution, it also requires its own processor, sufficient to meet the requirements of the armed forces, law enforcement agencies, government and education. And, if possible, the commercialization of the product. After decades of active work, scientists and engineers of the Moscow Spark Technology Center (MCTS) are not ashamed to present the latest development of 2014-15: the eight-core processor Elbrus 8c. But before this historical event, a long way of theoretical calculations and practical investigations was passed.

In the USSR, the outstanding work in the development and development of computer technology was the work of Academician S. A. Lebedev. Electronic computers (computers) of fifteen models were created at the Institute of Precise Mechanics and Computer Engineering (ITM and VT) headed by the Academy of Sciences, from the first, lamp, to high-speed machines on integrated circuits.

Elbrus-1

The idea of an architectural line, later incorporated in the Russian processor "Elbrus", was born in 1969. The reason for the development was the need for "intellectualization" of strategic systems. The main designer was VS Burtsev, an outstanding specialist in computer science, later an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 1979 the first generation of multiprocessor computer complex (MVK) "Elbrus" was presented at ITM and VT state commission. The processor was designed based on TTL-logic. The system was used in the military industry.

Elbrus-2

Six years later, the second generation of the MVR Elbrus successfully passed the test. The processor and the new element base were completely domestic development. The system was based on high-speed integrated circuits with emitter-coupled logic of the IS-100 series. The performance of Elbrus-2 in the ten-processor configuration was 125 million operations per second.

MVK was built on a modular basis with increased reliability. Due to speed and fault tolerance, the complex was used for many years in key objects of strategic systems. Unique characteristics of the MVK were achieved by the introduction and development of a number of advanced ideas in the organization of the computing process.

Elbrus-3

The next stage (1986-1994) was the creation of the third generation of the MVK Elbrus. The processor has become even more powerful, the element base is more perfect. The head of the project was chosen by Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences BA Babayan. By the way, he made a fundamental contribution to the development of the MVK Elbrus-1 and Elbrus-2.

Evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of the superscalar architecture developed by him in the second generation of MVK, Boris Artashesovich proposed a more advanced implementation of the concept of a broad command word. Before the collapse of the Union, experts had managed to collect a prototype, but the new authorities stopped financing in the future.

The newest time

The continuation of this project line is related to the activities of ZAO MCTS. In its structure, leading domestic microelectronics, having made a principled bet on the use of microprocessor technologies, have begun to create two series of microprocessors and computer systems based on them. These works later allowed to create a powerful Russian processor "Elbrus" in 2014 release.

The design basis for the first series was the open architecture Scalable Processor Architecture (SPARC), specified by Sun Microsystems Corporation. Based on it, the "R" family was created.

The basis of the second series was the original architecture "Elbrus", developing principles that were tested and laid in MVK-3 (originally it was called "E2k architecture"). In total, four main types of processors were created. So, Elbrus (processor): the models are compared in the table below.

Elbrus-4s

One of the last successful developments of the company MTSTS was the processor Elbrus-4s. Its architecture is based on original development, the basis for which was the microarchitecture VLIW. For the computation processes there are 4 cores at 800 MHz, cache memory of 2 MB on each core.

Despite the seeming archaism in terms of production technology (large sizes, small frequency, the technological process of the "last century" 65 nm), the efficiency of the electronic device is comparable to the Intel i series processors. With less power consumption (45 W), its performance is up to 50 Gflops. For comparison: the older model Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition has a performance of 53 GFlops at much higher frequencies and power consumption. This modern Russian processor "Elbrus" in 2014 release was put to the test and went into the series.

Elbrus-8S

It seems that the time of evolution is over, the turn of revolution for domestic microelectronics is a breakthrough. Joint-stock company "MCTS" together with the Institute of Electronic Control Machines has developed and produced engineering samples of a new generation product. The "Elbrus 8c" processor is being prepared for industrial production, which is created using a 28-nanometer process technology.

Work device will be paired with the controller also domestic development KPI-2. Although the controller is still available on 65 nm process technology, it supports three Gigabit Ethernet controllers, 20 PCI-Express 2.0 bus lines, eight USB 2.0 ports, and eight SATA ports. Data exchange with the processor is 16 GB / s.

Specifications

The manufacturer revealed the main characteristics of the newest Elbrus system:

• The processor - 8 cores without hypertrading.
• The area of the crystal is 350 mm ² .
• The second level cache for each core is 512 KB.
• The third level cache is shared - 16 MB.
• Performance per cycle - 30 operations.
• The clock frequency is 1.3 GHz, with these parameters, uninterrupted operation of all the cores is guaranteed for unlimited time, even with a 100% load.
• Productivity (peak) - 250 Gflops.
• Power - 60-90 watts.
• Licensed independence from Intel, while supporting the basic operating systems with the architecture of x86 / x86-64.

As you can see, the Russian processor "Elbrus" of the last generation is five times more productive than the 4C model.

Architecture

As an important result, the company CJSC MCTS developed the original microprocessor architecture "Elbrus". The processor is focused on obtaining maximum performance indicators for these hardware resources. In the general classification, it refers to the category of architectures using the principle of the wide command word VLIW (Very Large Instruction Word), when the compiler generates a series of command groups (broad command words) for parallel execution, in which there are no dependencies between commands within the group and minimized dependencies Between teams in different groups.

Thus, the Russian processor "Elbrus" uses a high degree of parallelism at the level of operations, which is present in this code. As a result, a large architectural speed is achieved by freeing the hardware from the parallelization functions inherent in superscalar architectures and transferring them to the optimizing compiler. This led to another important feature peculiar to the architecture of "Elbrus" - a low level of power consumption of equipment.

Along with the effective use of the parallelism of operations in the architecture of the Elbrus device, other types (levels) of parallelism are inherent in the computing process:

• Parallelism of problems in multi-machine complexes;
• The concurrency of control flows on shared memory;
• Vector parallelism.

Compatible with x86 architecture

As a fundamental requirement for architecture, developers initially considered providing effective binary compatibility with the dominant architecture of the Intel x86 microprocessor. It is implemented on the basis of hidden dynamic translation and its support in the hardware of the microprocessor "Elbrus". Also, the defining properties of the new domestic architecture include advanced hardware support for secure computing (modular programming), which greatly facilitates the work of programmers when creating large software packages with limited execution time.

Practical use

Where is it planned to use Russian processors? It is necessary to understand that this product is developed for the sole purpose - to provide microelectronics and computer equipment that is self-sufficient, independent of supply and licensing. Computers on the Elbrus processor with an increased level of security and protection against computer viruses are in demand in the military industry, in security services, in important state institutions.

Meanwhile, the system allows you to install the familiar Windows and Linux, which opens the way if not to the average consumer, then to the corporate sector. The company MCST offers protected computers and servers that can function in adverse environments.