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Pretty sure you mean us (REX Computing; http://rexcomputing.com http://rexcomputing.com), though I would not consider our network on chip "weird" :P Our big di

Pretty sure you mean us (REX Computing; http://rexcomputing.com http://rexcomputing.com), though I would not consider our network on chip "weird" :P Our big difference that you were trying to remember was our use of scratchpad memory which is simply stated as this: We can radically reduce power consumption, increase density, and increase speed of on chip memory (SRAM) by removing the traditional hardware caching system. We instead use a purely software managed memory system, through some very fancy (or do I dare say "smart") compiler techniques that are enabled by a a very simplified architecture and the ability to guarantee latency for all memory operations. We can still have main system memory (meaning DRAM), it is just instead of having a bunch of complex hardware that burns a lot of power and wastes a lot of space in order to automatically fetch pages out of DRAM, we structure the code for each core to efficiently pull only the data necessary when it is needed.

gnufx 10y ago
Perhaps you've noticed the architecture of the new top top500 system. There's currently an HPC guessing game on filling in blanks in <http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/sunway-report-2016.pdf> http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/sunway-... but of course CPU comparisons stop at Knights Landing. One of the things I wondered about is how Linux is adapted to such an architecture. I couldn't find anything from REX on operating system support.
- dnautics 10y ago
  I don't think you're not supposed to run linux on the current rex architecture. I think you're supposed to (pre/) compile a program for it, issue it to the chips, pass the data on over, and then sic the programs on the data.
- trsohmers 10y ago
  Yep, have seen it... it seems to not be exactly what was described by the Chinese at ISC or SC last year (their original description being much more in line with a DSP), though there is not much data available. All of the articles I am seeing today are calling it DEC Alpha "like", though the only real source for this seems to be the wikipedia article for the family of processors, with the latest version being in 2013. Dongarra even specifically says in the paper you linked that it was NOT related to the Alpha ISA, so it seems like all of the media articles are incorrect ;) As for REX, as dnautics said, we've been mostly focused on running raw compute kernels on the current simulated versions (software and FPGA), and for the soon to be in hand silicon (coming this fall)... one of our projects internally is to port the L4 microkernel, and a telecom focused RTOS, but that is as far as our operating systems plans go for the near future. I'd also love to get a Plan 9/inferno demo running on it for fun, but we've got more important work to do at the moment.
  - gnufx 10y ago
    Oh, so I guess the Sunway thing isn't as much like Neo conceptually as it looked to me from what little information I had. (I wasn't thinking about the ISA.) Of course the media are mainly useful for indications to chase primary sources. The point about the OS related to the Linux-based one for Sunway, but maybe it only runs on the management processor anyhow, with just offload to the others. I'd commented in that respect that we really don't want something like Linux in an ideal world, so I'm pleased to see mention of L4. Thanks for the comments, and good luck.

gnufx 10y ago

Perhaps you've noticed the architecture of the new top top500 system. There's currently an HPC guessing game on filling in blanks in <http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/sunway-report-2016.pdf> http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/sunway-... but of course CPU comparisons stop at Knights Landing. One of the things I wondered about is how Linux is adapted to such an architecture. I couldn't find anything from REX on operating system support.

dnautics 10y ago
I don't think you're not supposed to run linux on the current rex architecture. I think you're supposed to (pre/) compile a program for it, issue it to the chips, pass the data on over, and then sic the programs on the data.
trsohmers 10y ago
Yep, have seen it... it seems to not be exactly what was described by the Chinese at ISC or SC last year (their original description being much more in line with a DSP), though there is not much data available. All of the articles I am seeing today are calling it DEC Alpha "like", though the only real source for this seems to be the wikipedia article for the family of processors, with the latest version being in 2013. Dongarra even specifically says in the paper you linked that it was NOT related to the Alpha ISA, so it seems like all of the media articles are incorrect ;) As for REX, as dnautics said, we've been mostly focused on running raw compute kernels on the current simulated versions (software and FPGA), and for the soon to be in hand silicon (coming this fall)... one of our projects internally is to port the L4 microkernel, and a telecom focused RTOS, but that is as far as our operating systems plans go for the near future. I'd also love to get a Plan 9/inferno demo running on it for fun, but we've got more important work to do at the moment.
- gnufx 10y ago
  Oh, so I guess the Sunway thing isn't as much like Neo conceptually as it looked to me from what little information I had. (I wasn't thinking about the ISA.) Of course the media are mainly useful for indications to chase primary sources. The point about the OS related to the Linux-based one for Sunway, but maybe it only runs on the management processor anyhow, with just offload to the others. I'd commented in that respect that we really don't want something like Linux in an ideal world, so I'm pleased to see mention of L4. Thanks for the comments, and good luck.