Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 15969
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2025/04/04 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
4/4     

1999/6/16-17 [Computer/HW/CPU] UID:15969 Activity:high
6/16    http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9906/15/supercomp.idg
        They claim 60,000x faster than a PII350 for $1000, next year
        \_ This probably is bullshit.  This claims to be a reprogrammable
           FPGA which gives you the advantage that a special purpose
           processor would (like an mpeg decoder chip or a voodoo chip)
           but even those special purpose chips will give you a performance
           boost over a Pentium by only a factor of about 20x not 60,000x.
        \_ How is their technology different from the TransMeta stuff?
           Sounds similar...
        \_ "It will be some time before people will believe this is real.
           But in six to eight months, it will be an even bigger story,
           when the applications roll out" - I'd like to see an application
           roll out in six to eight months!
        \_ Self-modifying microcode on a Dandelion.  Been there, done that.
        \_ Since Intel first invented the microprocessor, every year there
           has been a new bit player that comes on claiming to beat Intel.
           And every year they have failed.  This one will be no different.
           \_ you are an idiot. people regularly make this claim, and reguarly,
              their processors are faster. they just don't sell as much.
              unless you mean "beat intel" as in "make more money than intel."
              -ali.
              \_ "beat intel" as in having the most bang for the buck:
                 performance / price.  The best technology that people can't
                 afford is meaningless.  So what if DEC alpha is the fastest?
                 How many people can enjoy it?  Intel has 6-7 billion-dollar-
                 fabs around the world and they consistently get the best
                 yields.  That's why they're the world's #1 supplier of chips.
                 \_ You have no idea what anyone's yields are.  You're making
                    shit up.  Yields are not public knowledge.  You're full
                    of shit.
        \_ wooptie fucking doo. memory bandwith will be the probelm for
           multimedia, not bit flipping power. besides, this processors is
           not meant as a general purpose desktop cpu. -ali
                \_ Don't care what its meant for.  Can it be used as one?
2025/04/04 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
4/4     

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www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9906/15/supercomp.idg -> www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9906/15/supercomp.idg/
EDT (1246 GMT) by Mark Brownstein gen computing graphic (IDG) -- Within 18 months, you may be able to put the equivalent of today's supercomputer on your desktop--for about $1000. The CPU, long the heart of all PCs, may be an unnecessary component in tomorrow's high-performance computers. The new computer will be able to process 100 billion instructions per second, according to Kent Gilson, chief technical officer of Star Bridge Systems. Company representatives discussed their plans for a high-end PC this week while announcing HAL-300GrW1, a "hypercomputer" that is said to be 60,000 times as fast as a 350-MHz Pentium, and many times as fast as IBM's supercomputer Pacific Blue. It will fill many of the roles of a supercomputer, such as voice recognition, natural language processing, and holographic displays, he says. The HAL-300GrW1 has a price tag of about $26 million, so it doesn't take a hypercomputer to understand why Star Bridge Systems has chosen to direct its attention to the HAL line first. If we came out with a PC, we wouldn't be able to sell enough to fund the company , but we can sell hundreds a year of the high-end ones, so it just makes sense," Gilson says. FPGAs can be programmed on the fly, so their configuration can be changed to perform the particular task at hand most efficiently. So in essence, an FPGA can become a specially designed CPU tailored to perform a required task right when you need the new processing architecture. The traditional CPU, by contrast, has a fixed instruction set that is burnt into silicon. Programming instructions are written to work with the instruction set, and are limited by the capabilities built into it. Suitcase supercomputer Star Bridge Systems had sold one HAL computer upon the line's announcement. For one sales pitch, Gilson showed off what he calls a "HAL Junior"--a model that fits into a suitcase but delivers 640 billion instructions per second. The company has mapped out a series of hypercomputer systems, ranging in performance from the HAL-10GrW1, capable of conducting 10 billion floating-point operations per second, to a HAL-100TrW1, which conducts 100 trillion floating point operations per second. The company is also selling signal-processing products (switches and routers) based on its HAL technology. These network products are designed for scientific supercomputing and extremely high-demand telecommunications. Meanwhile, Star Bridge Systems representatives are speaking with major companies that have expressed interest in HAL, and that undoubtedly wonder whether the system can deliver the performance promised. Initial targets are those currently using supercomputers, and those who might see this as a higher-performance, lower-cost supercomputer. RELATED SITES: 72 Star Bridge Systems Note: Pages will open in a new browser window External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.