4 ms·

This is really interesting. I definitely want to read more, because I've got some questions about it. I wonder if there's a limit to how many can be plugged in

This is really interesting. I definitely want to read more, because I've got some questions about it. I wonder if there's a limit to how many can be plugged in before you start seeing power problems on the downstream processors, and how it routes information between processors. Definitely intriguing though! Edit: Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much documentation on their website. A lot of talk about open source hardware, but I don't see any schematics, datasheets, etc. Oh well. Hopefully they'll be adding that soon.

Retric 17y ago
Each X Machina module has a 72 MHz processor (currently an ARM chip), a solid state drive of 16KB and 128KB of storage in an EPROM (erasable programmable read-0nly memory) chip. There’s also an LED for display output. These are not going to suck down much power. They have around 1/1000th the processing power of a 3Ghz quad core chip and 1/250th the RAM. If you want to build a useful mesh like this then cooling is going to be the first concern, followed by latency. The best design would be a back plane with these cards inserted into the side. Add power at the top and cool down the sides with the back plane for communication. But that's what a standard motherboard with PCI-X slots look like so it's less interesting.
- natemartin 17y ago
  Oh, I know these are very low power. But even if each board only takes 1 watt, if you've got 40 of them you're talking the same power consumption as a laptop CPU, but with a much longer distance for power delivery. But I'm still curious exactly what the power is, what the resistance of the power connections are, etc. As you said, it gets more interesting when they're not in a backplane, so I wanted to figure out what the constraints are. Someone on one of their blogs linked to http://www.xmos.com/ http://www.xmos.com/ which is also pretty interesting. It's a single chip with 4 cores, each of which can run 8 threads. And it takes care of all the switching between cores or even between chips. It doesn't have all the same features as this board does, such as the dynamically switched power/signal pins, but same sort of idea. Edit: In fact, the modularity of this is one of the more interesting aspects of it to me. I'd like to see how they're switching pins between signal and power dynamically. But, there's no schematics that I can find.
  - Retric 17y ago
    There is little problem in supplying power to a grid like this. It's related to the classic Given an infinite grid of 1 ohm risistors, what is the resistance across a single diagonal? Well known answer: 2/pi ohms. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=92564 http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=92564 Basically, as the size of the grid increases so do the number of paths to an edge element. The practical limit relates to how much current you can drive through a single, element, but you can always use more than one power connector. Edit: USB connection it can support a 3 x 3 grid (500 milliamps * 5 volts / 9) ~= 0.3 watts. So 130 of them should equal a low power CPU.
natemartin 17y ago
One of the developers just replied on his blog. They're working on the documentation, and it will be up soon. As far as power delivery goes, off of a USB connection it can support a 3 x 3 grid, and they're working on a power supply board that will support 15 x 15. Pretty cool.

Retric 17y ago

Each X Machina module has a 72 MHz processor (currently an ARM chip), a solid state drive of 16KB and 128KB of storage in an EPROM (erasable programmable read-0nly memory) chip. There’s also an LED for display output. These are not going to suck down much power. They have around 1/1000th the processing power of a 3Ghz quad core chip and 1/250th the RAM. If you want to build a useful mesh like this then cooling is going to be the first concern, followed by latency. The best design would be a back plane with these cards inserted into the side. Add power at the top and cool down the sides with the back plane for communication. But that's what a standard motherboard with PCI-X slots look like so it's less interesting.

natemartin 17y ago
Oh, I know these are very low power. But even if each board only takes 1 watt, if you've got 40 of them you're talking the same power consumption as a laptop CPU, but with a much longer distance for power delivery. But I'm still curious exactly what the power is, what the resistance of the power connections are, etc. As you said, it gets more interesting when they're not in a backplane, so I wanted to figure out what the constraints are. Someone on one of their blogs linked to http://www.xmos.com/ http://www.xmos.com/ which is also pretty interesting. It's a single chip with 4 cores, each of which can run 8 threads. And it takes care of all the switching between cores or even between chips. It doesn't have all the same features as this board does, such as the dynamically switched power/signal pins, but same sort of idea. Edit: In fact, the modularity of this is one of the more interesting aspects of it to me. I'd like to see how they're switching pins between signal and power dynamically. But, there's no schematics that I can find.
- Retric 17y ago
  There is little problem in supplying power to a grid like this. It's related to the classic Given an infinite grid of 1 ohm risistors, what is the resistance across a single diagonal? Well known answer: 2/pi ohms. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=92564 http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=92564 Basically, as the size of the grid increases so do the number of paths to an edge element. The practical limit relates to how much current you can drive through a single, element, but you can always use more than one power connector. Edit: USB connection it can support a 3 x 3 grid (500 milliamps * 5 volts / 9) ~= 0.3 watts. So 130 of them should equal a low power CPU.

natemartin 17y ago

One of the developers just replied on his blog. They're working on the documentation, and it will be up soon. As far as power delivery goes, off of a USB connection it can support a 3 x 3 grid, and they're working on a power supply board that will support 15 x 15. Pretty cool.