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"144 computers"=="144 core parallel cpu" ? I'm guessing this is not x86 and targeted at academic researchers looking to build custom, massively parallel, compu

"144 computers"=="144 core parallel cpu" ? I'm guessing this is not x86 and targeted at academic researchers looking to build custom, massively parallel, computational clusters on the cheap [ computational neuroscience? ]. If anyone could volunteer additional context or applications for this please do so, I'm not as familiar with hardware as I'd like to be.

sasvari 16y ago
This very powerful and versatile chip consists of an 18x8 array of architecturally identical, independent, complete F18A computers, or nodes, each of which operates asynchronously. Each computer is capable of performing a basic ALU instruction in approx. 1.5 nanoseconds for an energy cost on the order of 7 picojoules. Nothing else available today comes close to that winning combination. Twenty-two of the computers on the edges of the array have one or more I/O pins and one of several classes of circuitry associated with them, as illustrated below. http://www.greenarrays.com/home/documents/greg/PB001-100503-GA144-1-10.pdf http://www.greenarrays.com/home/documents/greg/PB001-100503-... [pdf] About the mentioned F18A computer: The F18A is a stable, mature design for a computer and its I/O whose robustness has been proven in many chip configurations. It has been proven in 180nm geometry, and a prototype in 130 nm has also performed well. The computer is small; eight fit in roughly a square millimeter. Depending on chip configurations, this yields between 100,000 and 200,000 computers per 8 inch wafer, contributing to the low cost of our chips. http://greenarraychips.com/home/documents/greg/PB003-100822-F18A.pdf http://greenarraychips.com/home/documents/greg/PB003-100822-... [pdf] In the named pdf -files are also some information about possible applications. But it seems to be quite tough to get some outside information about it.
thesz 16y ago
It has 64 words of RAM and 64 words of ROM. It has 18-bit word for ALU operations and commands. I think it has more than one MISC command in a word, I think count is about 3 (six-bit commands). I cannot wrap my head around how to program that... not a beast, more like a field of tiny windmills. One of the designers of preceding chips once wrote about using it as a systolic engine, but the area of systolic algorithms is quite narrow, AFAIK. I cannot find any C/Fortran compiler or compiler for any other high-level language. My overall impression is that this looks like all bad ideas from Cell BE were ported to Forth language. MISC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_instruction_set_computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_instruction_set_compute... John Sokol on early GreenArray alike designs: http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=274687&cid=20297751 http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=274687&cid=...
- metamemetics 16y ago
  My initial thought was: high density, asynchronous cores -> brain modeling. You treat each asynchronous core as a neuron. Reading up on Charles Moore this may indeed be the intended case: http://www.pcai.com/web/ai_info/pcai_forth.html http://www.pcai.com/web/ai_info/pcai_forth.html > Charles Moore created Forth in the 1960s and 1970s to give computers real-time control over astronomical equipment. A number of Forth's features (such as its interactive style) make it a useful language for AI programming, and devoted adherents have developed Forth-based expert systems and neural networks. Still, 100 billion neurons in brain / 144 cores * $20 per chip = ~$13 billion . Also I would guess most modern researchers in this area don't know Forth and are doing high-level programming and virtualizing neurons rather than taking a low-level hardware approach.
  - thesz 16y ago
    Forth was used in AI in a pretty non-linear way. I have a book where authors developed Lisp on Forth and then proceed developing Prolog on newly created Lisp. Then they demonstrated how to use that Prolog in the development of rule-based expert system. There was a saying that Forth amplify programmers' ability to develop programs and to make mistakes. If you a need an AI tool, but do not need your mistakes to be amplified, stay away from Forth. I think that apply to other areas of domain-specific development as well. While I adore Forth, I cannot recommend it to anyone. Especially to simulate brain - what if you introduce an error, Forth amplifies it and we'll get a hidden psychopath? ;)
    - silentbicycle 16y ago
      What book is it? You can't just mention a book that has Forth, Lisp, AND Prolog and not give the title. :) PAIP and a couple others have Lisp and Prolog, LOL has Lisp and Forth, HOPL 2 has all three (but separately), but it doesn't sound like any of those.
      - TY 16y ago
        I think he probably spoke about "Designing and Programming Personal Expert Systems" by Carl Townsend that dates back to 1986. From http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-lang/forth-faq/part5/ http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-lang/forth-faq/part5/ Contains LISP and Prolog emulations in Forth, including a unification algorithm. It also has some minimum distance classifier code. The application is fault diagnosis in locomotives.
nadam 16y ago
I am wondering whether this could be used for real-time ray tracing or even for real-time photon mapping. I always had the impression that in case of highly parallel algorithms an incredible amount of very primitive processors have the best MIPS/transistor_count ratio. I know though that the bottleneck usually is bus communication / memory access.
rbanffy 16y ago
> I'm guessing this is not x86 Nothing really interesting is.

sasvari 16y ago

This very powerful and versatile chip consists of an 18x8 array of architecturally identical, independent, complete F18A computers, or nodes, each of which operates asynchronously. Each computer is capable of performing a basic ALU instruction in approx. 1.5 nanoseconds for an energy cost on the order of 7 picojoules. Nothing else available today comes close to that winning combination. Twenty-two of the computers on the edges of the array have one or more I/O pins and one of several classes of circuitry associated with them, as illustrated below. http://www.greenarrays.com/home/documents/greg/PB001-100503-GA144-1-10.pdf http://www.greenarrays.com/home/documents/greg/PB001-100503-... [pdf] About the mentioned F18A computer: The F18A is a stable, mature design for a computer and its I/O whose robustness has been proven in many chip configurations. It has been proven in 180nm geometry, and a prototype in 130 nm has also performed well. The computer is small; eight fit in roughly a square millimeter. Depending on chip configurations, this yields between 100,000 and 200,000 computers per 8 inch wafer, contributing to the low cost of our chips. http://greenarraychips.com/home/documents/greg/PB003-100822-F18A.pdf http://greenarraychips.com/home/documents/greg/PB003-100822-... [pdf] In the named pdf -files are also some information about possible applications. But it seems to be quite tough to get some outside information about it.

thesz 16y ago

It has 64 words of RAM and 64 words of ROM. It has 18-bit word for ALU operations and commands. I think it has more than one MISC command in a word, I think count is about 3 (six-bit commands). I cannot wrap my head around how to program that... not a beast, more like a field of tiny windmills. One of the designers of preceding chips once wrote about using it as a systolic engine, but the area of systolic algorithms is quite narrow, AFAIK. I cannot find any C/Fortran compiler or compiler for any other high-level language. My overall impression is that this looks like all bad ideas from Cell BE were ported to Forth language. MISC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_instruction_set_computer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_instruction_set_compute... John Sokol on early GreenArray alike designs: http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=274687&cid=20297751 http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=274687&cid=...

metamemetics 16y ago
My initial thought was: high density, asynchronous cores -> brain modeling. You treat each asynchronous core as a neuron. Reading up on Charles Moore this may indeed be the intended case: http://www.pcai.com/web/ai_info/pcai_forth.html http://www.pcai.com/web/ai_info/pcai_forth.html > Charles Moore created Forth in the 1960s and 1970s to give computers real-time control over astronomical equipment. A number of Forth's features (such as its interactive style) make it a useful language for AI programming, and devoted adherents have developed Forth-based expert systems and neural networks. Still, 100 billion neurons in brain / 144 cores * $20 per chip = ~$13 billion . Also I would guess most modern researchers in this area don't know Forth and are doing high-level programming and virtualizing neurons rather than taking a low-level hardware approach.
- thesz 16y ago
  Forth was used in AI in a pretty non-linear way. I have a book where authors developed Lisp on Forth and then proceed developing Prolog on newly created Lisp. Then they demonstrated how to use that Prolog in the development of rule-based expert system. There was a saying that Forth amplify programmers' ability to develop programs and to make mistakes. If you a need an AI tool, but do not need your mistakes to be amplified, stay away from Forth. I think that apply to other areas of domain-specific development as well. While I adore Forth, I cannot recommend it to anyone. Especially to simulate brain - what if you introduce an error, Forth amplifies it and we'll get a hidden psychopath? ;)
  - silentbicycle 16y ago
    What book is it? You can't just mention a book that has Forth, Lisp, AND Prolog and not give the title. :) PAIP and a couple others have Lisp and Prolog, LOL has Lisp and Forth, HOPL 2 has all three (but separately), but it doesn't sound like any of those.
    - TY 16y ago
      I think he probably spoke about "Designing and Programming Personal Expert Systems" by Carl Townsend that dates back to 1986. From http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-lang/forth-faq/part5/ http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-lang/forth-faq/part5/ Contains LISP and Prolog emulations in Forth, including a unification algorithm. It also has some minimum distance classifier code. The application is fault diagnosis in locomotives.

nadam 16y ago

I am wondering whether this could be used for real-time ray tracing or even for real-time photon mapping. I always had the impression that in case of highly parallel algorithms an incredible amount of very primitive processors have the best MIPS/transistor_count ratio. I know though that the bottleneck usually is bus communication / memory access.

rbanffy 16y ago

> I'm guessing this is not x86 Nothing really interesting is.