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Philippe Marschall wrote:
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cite="mid:66666f210807050541w52ee7509td4ef5279bf0ecd65@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">2008/7/5, Peter William Lount <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:peter@smalltalk.org"><peter@smalltalk.org></a>:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hi,
Intel among others such as Tilera and NVidia are telling us - yes us
smalltalkers - to prepare for tens, hundreds and thousands of cores on a
single chip. It's up to us to bring this power to our end users - and
ourselves too!
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
The same Intel that has told us that the future will be IA64 / EPIC?
The same Intel that has promised us 20 Gigahurtz today? The same Intel
that tried to sell us RAMBUST? The same Intel that builds SSE into
it's processors to make the Internet faster?
Cheers
Philippe
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
Hi,<br>
<br>
Yeah, the Itanium. An awesome chip architecture with an incredible
instruction set. Gotta love it and it's doomed marketing.<br>
<br>
Yes, that Intel who showed an 80 core research chip last year.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teraflops_Research_Chip">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teraflops_Research_Chip</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/06/21/intel-shows-off-2-tflops-processor">http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/06/21/intel-shows-off-2-tflops-processor</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://techresearch.intel.com/articles/Tera-Scale/1449.htm">http://techresearch.intel.com/articles/Tera-Scale/1449.htm</a><br>
<br>
Yes, that Intel that is bringing out this little wonder.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080205-small-wonder-inside-intels-silverthorne-ultramobile-cpu.html">http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080205-small-wonder-inside-intels-silverthorne-ultramobile-cpu.html</a><br>
<br>
Intel isn't the only vendor up to the N-Core game. In fact they are
getting beaten down hard by all the other contenders for the thrown.
Hard.<br>
<br>
Yes, Multi-core from the companies listed here:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-core_(computing)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-core_(computing)</a><br>
<br>
Yes, that Tilera. They have 20 and <b>Tile-64 </b>core chips now,
with 128 cores in the works. They have indicated that they plan up to
4096 with their technology.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.Tilera.com">http://www.Tilera.com</a><br>
<br>
Yes, that NVidia who is already delivering tons of boards with massive
numbers of GPGPUs. I have a couple of these boards already.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.NVidia.com">http://www.NVidia.com</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_200_Series">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_200_Series</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_</a><b>Tesla</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/03/nvidia-said-to-be-dropping-geforce-gtx-280-price-in-response-to/">http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/03/nvidia-said-to-be-dropping-geforce-gtx-280-price-in-response-to/</a><br>
<br>
Yes, AMD and Intel who announced 8 core mainstream chips for next year.<br>
<br>
Yes, AMD (ATI) who announced this awesome speed beastie: 4870 X2
(RV770XT) cards. <b>800+ stream processing units!</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/03/amd-radeon-hd-4870-x2-images-leaked-rumored-for-august-release/">http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/03/amd-radeon-hd-4870-x2-images-leaked-rumored-for-august-release/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd4800/specs.html">http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd4800/specs.html</a><br>
<br>
Yes, IBM who makes the <b>9 core cell processor</b> chip.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(microprocessor)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(microprocessor)</a><br>
<br>
Yes, Apple who just bought P.A. Semi.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://gizmodo.com/382929/apple-buys-itself-a-little-chip-company-known-for-super-efficient-processors">http://gizmodo.com/382929/apple-buys-itself-a-little-chip-company-known-for-super-efficient-processors</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b>These are not your or your fathers Transputer, most of these are
real N-core processors available now. <br>
</b><br>
Looking at the cpu power available to us and comparing it with the
software that is available one can't but be either sad or highly
motivated to make use of the powerful chips to make much better
software. Heck we're still programming with words! What ever happened
to visual programming? We still have macosx and windows and ick linux
and unix as the best of the breed systems? Ick. Sure I use them all but
come on... we can and must do better...<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
Peter<br>
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