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FPGA can fill that middle path. sort of. Microsoft (Azure) is investing heavily in FPGA based configurable cloud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_4Ap1bjwgs h

FPGA can fill that middle path. sort of. Microsoft (Azure) is investing heavily in FPGA based configurable cloud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_4Ap1bjwgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_4Ap1bjwgs

tyingq 7y ago
Not sure why you were downvoted here. Specifically engineered systems with things like FPGA, GPU, TPU, Infiniband, Optane, "minion cores", etc, are probably the best candidates to re-establish something like a proprietary mid-range where you care who the vendor is.
- nickpsecurity 7y ago
  I was eyeballing the Pico Computing boxen for this: https://www.micron.com/products/advanced-solutions/advanced-computing-solutions/hpc-desktop-systems https://www.micron.com/products/advanced-solutions/advanced-... One could get a lot of mileage in many areas out of a desktop with a good CPU, lots of RAM, a graphics card for general-purpose use, and one or more FPGA's w/ HLS tooling (or just buy the modules). Especially if the basic components were standardized like the PC with minimum requirements on cores, slices, etc on each version of the platform. An app ecosystem could be developed or emerge with capabilities regular desktops couldn't match.
- bogomipz 7y ago
  I'm unfamiliar with the "minion cores" reference in your comment. Is this the same things as this RISCv architecture? https://www.lowrisc.org/docs/minion-v0.4/overview/ https://www.lowrisc.org/docs/minion-v0.4/overview/
  - tyingq 7y ago
    That's what I was referring to. The PRUs in a TI AM335X (like the BeagleBone) are similar. Basically real time capable microcontrollers that share memory with the mainstream CPU that is probably running Linux. Allows for interesting use cases, like high speed data in or out to drive LED displays, sample signals, generate audio, etc.
    - bogomipz 7y ago
      Thanks, this is really interesting. Might you have any other links or resources on this you could share? Cheers.
      - tyingq 7y ago
        The basics: http://www.righto.com/2016/08/pru-tips-understanding-beaglebones.html http://www.righto.com/2016/08/pru-tips-understanding-beagleb... Project that uses PRUs for audio: https://bela.io https://bela.io and how it works: https://hackaday.com/2016/04/13/bela-real-time-beaglebone-audioanalog-cape/ https://hackaday.com/2016/04/13/bela-real-time-beaglebone-au... Driving an LED matrix display: https://trmm.net/Category:LEDscape https://trmm.net/Category:LEDscape Emulating an old Macintosh SE video board: https://trmm.net/Mac-SE_video https://trmm.net/Mac-SE_video Another sort of "minion core" in Allwinner ARM boards: http://linux-sunxi.org/AR100 http://linux-sunxi.org/AR100
truth_seeker 7y ago
Almost a month back there was a post on HN about company called Upmem which puts CPUs inside memory Post:- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20766283 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20766283 Tech use cases :- https://www.upmem.com/use-cases/ https://www.upmem.com/use-cases/

tyingq 7y ago

Not sure why you were downvoted here. Specifically engineered systems with things like FPGA, GPU, TPU, Infiniband, Optane, "minion cores", etc, are probably the best candidates to re-establish something like a proprietary mid-range where you care who the vendor is.

nickpsecurity 7y ago
I was eyeballing the Pico Computing boxen for this: https://www.micron.com/products/advanced-solutions/advanced-computing-solutions/hpc-desktop-systems https://www.micron.com/products/advanced-solutions/advanced-... One could get a lot of mileage in many areas out of a desktop with a good CPU, lots of RAM, a graphics card for general-purpose use, and one or more FPGA's w/ HLS tooling (or just buy the modules). Especially if the basic components were standardized like the PC with minimum requirements on cores, slices, etc on each version of the platform. An app ecosystem could be developed or emerge with capabilities regular desktops couldn't match.
bogomipz 7y ago
I'm unfamiliar with the "minion cores" reference in your comment. Is this the same things as this RISCv architecture? https://www.lowrisc.org/docs/minion-v0.4/overview/ https://www.lowrisc.org/docs/minion-v0.4/overview/
- tyingq 7y ago
  That's what I was referring to. The PRUs in a TI AM335X (like the BeagleBone) are similar. Basically real time capable microcontrollers that share memory with the mainstream CPU that is probably running Linux. Allows for interesting use cases, like high speed data in or out to drive LED displays, sample signals, generate audio, etc.
  - bogomipz 7y ago
    Thanks, this is really interesting. Might you have any other links or resources on this you could share? Cheers.
    - tyingq 7y ago
      The basics: http://www.righto.com/2016/08/pru-tips-understanding-beaglebones.html http://www.righto.com/2016/08/pru-tips-understanding-beagleb... Project that uses PRUs for audio: https://bela.io https://bela.io and how it works: https://hackaday.com/2016/04/13/bela-real-time-beaglebone-audioanalog-cape/ https://hackaday.com/2016/04/13/bela-real-time-beaglebone-au... Driving an LED matrix display: https://trmm.net/Category:LEDscape https://trmm.net/Category:LEDscape Emulating an old Macintosh SE video board: https://trmm.net/Mac-SE_video https://trmm.net/Mac-SE_video Another sort of "minion core" in Allwinner ARM boards: http://linux-sunxi.org/AR100 http://linux-sunxi.org/AR100

truth_seeker 7y ago

Almost a month back there was a post on HN about company called Upmem which puts CPUs inside memory Post:- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20766283 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20766283 Tech use cases :- https://www.upmem.com/use-cases/ https://www.upmem.com/use-cases/