On Sunday 06 Jul 2008 1:30:28 am Jecel Assumpcao Jr wrote:
> Intel and Microsoft may have forgotten these lessons, but some of us
> haven't. And having them cough up $20M for a joint research project in
> multi-core software doesn't impress me very much. I bet just the coffee
> budget at either of these companies is a lot larger than that.
The engineering issues are different this time. Intel is talking about their 
capability to bring 1K-core boards to the retail store level. This is very 
different from a research project in a handful of locations accessible to a 
few researchers. J-Machine builders did not have to deal with battery 
drain :-).

You do have a point about Intel/MS ignoring past work in this area. Their 
research director could have presented the capability as a revival of prior 
research instead of making it appear like a new challenge. CST and Actalk are 
over two decades old and cited in many ACM papers.  Their collective amnesia 
is inexcusable.

If processing elements could be wrapped in an object, then 1024 looks like a 
small number....

Subbu