Two Intel Xeon Phi Product Centres of Competence are to open at the University of Cambridge at the end of 2012, with one further centre expected to be announced at a later date. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed by Dell and Intel, confirming plans to offer hardware based upon the Intel Xeon multi-core processors and the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors.
The two Intel Xeon Phi Product Centres of Competence will enable scientific researchers in EMEA to learn, optimise and test their code using Intel Xeon and future Intel MIC (many integrated core) products. The aim is to prepare the scientific research community for the launch of the first generation of the Intel Xeon Phi family of products so that the coprocessor can be used immediately as a production tool. This initiative is expected to last for at least two years to accommodate the needs of the scientific research community as it evolves its code for parallelisation and vectorisation.
