5 ms·

I'm not sure I see where this is used. It's way to expensive to put into a consumer product (adding another cell is way cheaper than shaving 100uA). For niche

by Hasz 9y ago

I'm not sure I see where this is used. It's way to expensive to put into a consumer product (adding another cell is way cheaper than shaving 100uA). For niche products (can afford a $20 uC on the BOM), development cost is non-trivial, so the excellent MSP430 documentation and support negates any advantage the GreenArray product might have. In essence, it's too expensive for the low and high end (albeit in different units of cost) so who do they go after? If they want to fix #2, don't use a 10 chip MOQ ($200) and charge $450 for the demo board. Hand out a few at cost to some ECE departments or at a conference and let people do cool things with your tech. Their trials an tribulations are free publicity and support material.

jstewartmobile 9y ago
This was from 2010, so probably not a plug as much as a case study of an unusual architecture by a legend in the field. So much of the stuff out there is just a variation on a well-worn theme. A multi-core stack machine with 18-bit words implemented in asynchronous logic[0] is definitely a road not taken. It's nice to see people sticking their necks out--especially in the space of tangibles where starting costs are usually much higher. [0] http://worrydream.com/refs/Sutherland%20-%20Tyranny%20of%20the%20Clock.pdf http://worrydream.com/refs/Sutherland%20-%20Tyranny%20of%20t...
yiyus 9y ago
> the excellent MSP430 documentation and support negates any advantage the GreenArray product might have. The advantage of the GA144 is not that it has slightly better specs. It is a completely new paradigm. This is basically a new zeppelin that can take you from one continent to another in a comparable time to a commercial flight, and you are complaining because the price of the ticket is much higher. I do not think the point of these new chips is not make a dent in the market (either for consumer products or enthusiasts), but to show that radically different computing systems are possible. Maybe it is not directly profitable, but it surely is mind-opening.
- Hasz 9y ago
  I’m not trying to complain, and I don’t disagree. My wording is used. If the GA144 can actually be better than existing solution, there’s thousands of engineers who would happily try it. But until GreenArray can demonstrate a compelling use case, an unmet need, something — the product won’t make it very far.

by Hasz 9y ago

jstewartmobile 9y ago

This was from 2010, so probably not a plug as much as a case study of an unusual architecture by a legend in the field. So much of the stuff out there is just a variation on a well-worn theme. A multi-core stack machine with 18-bit words implemented in asynchronous logic[0] is definitely a road not taken. It's nice to see people sticking their necks out--especially in the space of tangibles where starting costs are usually much higher. [0] http://worrydream.com/refs/Sutherland%20-%20Tyranny%20of%20the%20Clock.pdf http://worrydream.com/refs/Sutherland%20-%20Tyranny%20of%20t...

yiyus 9y ago

> the excellent MSP430 documentation and support negates any advantage the GreenArray product might have. The advantage of the GA144 is not that it has slightly better specs. It is a completely new paradigm. This is basically a new zeppelin that can take you from one continent to another in a comparable time to a commercial flight, and you are complaining because the price of the ticket is much higher. I do not think the point of these new chips is not make a dent in the market (either for consumer products or enthusiasts), but to show that radically different computing systems are possible. Maybe it is not directly profitable, but it surely is mind-opening.

Hasz 9y ago
I’m not trying to complain, and I don’t disagree. My wording is used. If the GA144 can actually be better than existing solution, there’s thousands of engineers who would happily try it. But until GreenArray can demonstrate a compelling use case, an unmet need, something — the product won’t make it very far.