Supercomputers have been using a massive, parallel design for continuously computing loads of data at the same time, while desktop computers have always had more of a serial computing approach, up until lately. Both Intel and AMD have launched multi-core processors for the desktop environment, but they are mainly dual-cores, meaning we have gone from a single thread to two threads. Not much of an improvement really if you consider how many threads a large supercomputer can handle. Professor Uzi Vishkin and his colleagues at the James Clark School of Engineering have now unveiled a prototype of what they claim to be the next generation of desktop computers.
The prototype uses 64 processors on a PCB the size of a license plate to create a multiple setup of processors, but the ingenious part is that they’ve managed to get them to cooperate and distribute the data without making it any harder for the software programmers.
They’ve namely developed a new organization that allows all of the processors to work together and at the same time allow the programmers to use the same kind of programming as with serial designs. One of the major reasons desktops have not become more parallel, but instead refined the serial design, is because of the software programming complexity a parallel, or even massively parallel, design involves, which is now a thing of the past if the prototype turn out to be just as good as they claim it to be.
“This system represents a significant improvement in generality and flexibility for parallel computer systems because of its unique abilities,” said Burton Smith, technical fellow for advanced strategies and policy at Microsoft. “It will be able to exploit a wider spectrum of parallel algorithms than today’s microprocessors can, and this in turn will help bring general purpose parallel computing closer to reality.”
The university has also announced a naming contest for the new supercomputer. First prize is $500, which may not be a lot, but then you get to name the prototype of what could become the next generation of desktop computers. Enter the contest HERE.
