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Author Topic: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster  (Read 18763 times)

RMoore

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ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« on: December 28, 2010, 07:17:26 PM »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1342100/Scien tists-unveil-1-000-core-chip-make-desktop-machines-20-times- faster.html

Scientists have created an ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster than current desktop computers.

Modern PCs have a processor with two, four or sometimes 16 cores to carry out tasks.

But the central processing unit (CPU) developed by the researchers effectively had 1,000 cores on a single chip.

The developments could usher in a new age of high-speed computing in the next few years for home users frustrated with slow-running systems.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1342100/Scien tists-unveil-1-000-core-chip-make-desktop-machines-20-times- faster.html#ixzz19SHoCGcq
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Barry Hufker

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2010, 09:58:52 PM »

"The developments could usher in a new age of high-speed computing in the next few years for home users frustrated with slow-running systems."

No it won't.  It will just mean fast computers running more poorly written programs on a boggled system.  How did faster computers (that we have now) speed anything up?  People just wrote bigger (and sloppier) programs that slowed the machines down again.  Or people ran more (big, sloppy) programs that slowed the machines down.  If we enjoyed faster computing now we wouldn't care so much about even faster computing.

I'm happy to see faster computers and I love the promise of "faster computing" but I'll believe it when I see it.

Barry

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bruno putzeys

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2010, 03:18:00 AM »

When you do normal office work, faster computers have never led to faster work. Possibly the reverse, what with all the bells and whistles that distract one from one's job.

On the other hand, when you do stuff that really requires a lot of processing capability, faster truly is faster. I became acutely aware of that when I was sitting at a bench in Africa doing simulations on my laptop computer that in the beginning of my career would have taken my IBM AT months to complete, if it had the memory to store the result.

And when thinking of the sort of thing most of us do, on a daily basis, on a "native" DAW, the mind boggles.


----

About the article. Apparently they're talking about a massively parallel processor with very simple cores. Such work has been around since the 80's (probably longer) and the crux of the problem has always been programming them efficiently. It very much depends on the sort of processing you're trying to do whether or not it can be spread out efficiently. Most of us have such massively parallel processors on our desktop already in the form of the Graphics Processing Unit. Though optimized for 3D graphics, they are basically general purpose parallel processing units.
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/directcompute_home.html
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KB_S1

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2010, 06:26:58 AM »

Some reservation must be taken into account due to the source of that article.
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ktownson

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2010, 12:27:04 PM »

I work at a supercomputing center. The biggest roadblock has never been speed, it's been heat, and the systems needed to cool fast computers.

We have computers that are comparable to rows of refrigerators, with thousands of processors. All the space is taken up with other stuff keeping them from melting.

Once we had an massive A/C failure and the temperature on the floor shot from about 65 degrees to about 130 degrees in a matter of minutes.

And yes, programming is lagging well behind hardware, though the gaming programmers are making the most progress. A modern game console is like a 1990's supercomputer.
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Barry Hufker

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2010, 02:56:26 PM »

There is no doubt we have made advancements.  And indeed we have more powerful computers.  I guess my point is that we eventually clog them up with multi-tasking, too many iterations of plug-ins (or not enough), bloated programs and useless features to the point where it doesn't matter how fast they are, they are made slow once again.  I don't see that trend ending.

Barry
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seedyunderbelly.com

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2010, 11:56:12 AM »

Thanks Barry,   I  try to explain that to people (regarding the bloated programs) they do not believe it is true usually..  It is empirical though ..  you can watch it happen.. (or not happen)

MDM,

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #7 on: January 01, 2011, 04:48:02 PM »

of course it would not be in the interests of manufacturers to design a computer which does not need to be replaced within a few years.. so all the fancy programs, updates etc. are not going away.

But I do love the idea of smaller and more portable DAW's which can do DSD etc.
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cgc

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #8 on: January 01, 2011, 07:13:56 PM »

Hehe, the article is about FPGAs which have been around for many years.  Lots of audio and video devices use them already.  They would have to be programmed to mimic an x86 chip in order to run a modern OS and software.   At that point it would be doubtful that they would run any faster than current chips.

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Jon Hodgson

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2011, 09:16:03 PM »

cgc wrote on Sun, 02 January 2011 00:13

Hehe, the article is about FPGAs which have been around for many years.  Lots of audio and video devices use them already.  They would have to be programmed to mimic an x86 chip in order to run a modern OS and software.   At that point it would be doubtful that they would run any faster than current chips.



There's not really any doubt there, they would be slower, much slower.

FPGAs aren't particularly fast, they're always much slower than the current crop of full custom silicon, it's just that you can configure them to be particularly specialized, so they do a specific job very well (a custom chip with the same architecture would still be faster, but you may well do the job faster than a generic processor running a program to perform the same task).

So you don't use them to run a standard OS and software, you use them as accelerators for specific tasks.

I wonder if there's actually anything new in the project that's being reported on in this article except perhaps that the latest models of FPGA allow the implementation of certain architectures that in the past would have required a full custom implementation.
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Andy Peters

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2011, 12:59:35 AM »

Jon Hodgson wrote on Sat, 01 January 2011 19:16

I wonder if there's actually anything new in the project that's being reported on in this article except perhaps that the latest models of FPGA allow the implementation of certain architectures that in the past would have required a full custom implementation.


Even that's not new.

-a (FPGA guy for a living)
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Fletcher

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2011, 11:46:13 PM »

It'll be the bomb... but it will take years to implement.  I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article on the discovery of the the blue laser [now know as "Blu-Ray"] in 1996 on the train to a "Music Producers Guild" directors meeting... and when did that hit the street?

Eventually, it'll get there... in the meanwhile... there is analog.
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Tomas Danko

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2011, 06:53:06 AM »

Fletcher wrote on Wed, 05 January 2011 04:46

It'll be the bomb... but it will take years to implement.  I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article on the discovery of the the blue laser [now know as "Blu-Ray"] in 1996 on the train to a "Music Producers Guild" directors meeting... and when did that hit the street?

Eventually, it'll get there... in the meanwhile... there is analog.

And yet 1 mm3 of a mouse brain stores around 90 petabytes.
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Tom L

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2011, 10:12:54 AM »

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Jay Kadis

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Re: ultra-fast computer chip which is 20 times faster
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2011, 10:24:31 AM »

Tomas Danko wrote on Wed, 05 January 2011 03:53

Fletcher wrote on Wed, 05 January 2011 04:46

It'll be the bomb... but it will take years to implement.  I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article on the discovery of the the blue laser [now know as "Blu-Ray"] in 1996 on the train to a "Music Producers Guild" directors meeting... and when did that hit the street?

Eventually, it'll get there... in the meanwhile... there is analog.

And yet 1 mm3 of a mouse brain stores around 90 petabytes.
Each individual neuron is a hybrid processor, so we have a long way to go before multiprocessor CPUs approach the capabilities of even simple nervous systems.  I'm not sure I want to compete with thinking machines, so this is not a bad thing.
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