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He took a bunch of really minimal stack-based processors, added local interconnect, and called it good. Intel is making something quite a bit more complex, with
by sketerpot 17y ago
He took a bunch of really minimal stack-based processors, added local interconnect, and called it good. Intel is making something quite a bit more complex, with cores that can run a typical operating system (Linux, right now) and a full-fledged network for communications, complete with tiny routers.
- bitwize 17y agoIn other words, typically Intel-style MASSIVE OVERKILL. Splendid.
- sketerpot 17y agoNo, it's not overkill; it's a surprisingly clever and practical design for data centers and (with a more FP-centric core) computing clusters. The cores are relatively simple and get high performance/Watt for x86, and by fitting a lot of them onto a die with shared motherboard/cooling/etc. and some amount of DRAM sharing, they can lower the costs of machines that would ordinarily be running a bunch of virtual servers on Xen. As for the packet-switched network on chip, that's the way of the future: even with simple routers, it scales way better than bus-based communication methods, and is vastly easier to program than the nearest-neighbor interconnect that Chuck Moore used. I'm not trying to chew you out or anything; I just want to impress on you that this is fascinating stuff, and not something to be simply pidgeonholed as "massive overkill".