4 ms·

That would just be a cube, right?

dr_zoidberg 7y ago
OP's referring to an old architecture which was called "the hypercube" which involved a couple (I can't remember if 16 32, 64 or what number) of microprocessors connected to one another in a certainly-not-2d topology. Edit: oh a bit of searching and it was in the order of thousands of microprocessors. It was called "Connection Machine", you can read about it in Wikipedia[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine
- josh2600 7y ago
  One of my favorite essays ever is on the subject of the Connection Machine and Richard Feynman: http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine/ http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine...
  - buildbot 7y ago
    Thank you for this, that was a really excellent read. Nothing better than old computer architecture and some early ML!
    - kick 7y ago
      TMC was one of the coolest companies of all time; I really wish they were talked about more often.
ChuckMcM 7y ago
Nominally hypercube architecture is 'n' dimensional[1], which relates to the number of channels at each vertex. Assuming you took the front and back plane of this thing and connected them together it would qualify as having 6 dimensions (6 channels per vertex). The first such system I had a chance to play with was the Intel one[2] which was order 6 using Intels iAPX432 processors. [1] The (original?) Oak Ridge National Labs paper -- https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6487986-parallel-computing-hypercube-overview-architecture-some-applications https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6487986-parallel-computing-hyper... [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/313616b0.pdf?proof=trueIn https://www.nature.com/articles/313616b0.pdf?proof=trueIn
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  Oh, I see. If your cube is exactly 4x4x4, and you loop it in each dimension, then it's topologically equivalent to an order-6 hypercube with a node on each vertex. In the general case, you need log2(N) connections in each direction to turn an NxN or NxNxN topology into a hypercube, so it's not as simple as "left/right". (For example, for N=8, you might connect each position to position xor 1, position xor 2, and position xor 4.)

OP's referring to an old architecture which was called "the hypercube" which involved a couple (I can't remember if 16 32, 64 or what number) of microprocessors connected to one another in a certainly-not-2d topology. Edit: oh a bit of searching and it was in the order of thousands of microprocessors. It was called "Connection Machine", you can read about it in Wikipedia[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine

josh2600 7y ago
One of my favorite essays ever is on the subject of the Connection Machine and Richard Feynman: http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine/ http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine...
- buildbot 7y ago
  Thank you for this, that was a really excellent read. Nothing better than old computer architecture and some early ML!
  - kick 7y ago
    TMC was one of the coolest companies of all time; I really wish they were talked about more often.

ChuckMcM 7y ago

Nominally hypercube architecture is 'n' dimensional[1], which relates to the number of channels at each vertex. Assuming you took the front and back plane of this thing and connected them together it would qualify as having 6 dimensions (6 channels per vertex). The first such system I had a chance to play with was the Intel one[2] which was order 6 using Intels iAPX432 processors. [1] The (original?) Oak Ridge National Labs paper -- https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6487986-parallel-computing-hypercube-overview-architecture-some-applications https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6487986-parallel-computing-hyper... [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/313616b0.pdf?proof=trueIn https://www.nature.com/articles/313616b0.pdf?proof=trueIn

Dylan16807 7y ago
Oh, I see. If your cube is exactly 4x4x4, and you loop it in each dimension, then it's topologically equivalent to an order-6 hypercube with a node on each vertex. In the general case, you need log2(N) connections in each direction to turn an NxN or NxNxN topology into a hypercube, so it's not as simple as "left/right". (For example, for N=8, you might connect each position to position xor 1, position xor 2, and position xor 4.)