14-11-2012, 04:51 PM
A Revolutionary New Architecture for Supercomputing
A Revolutionary New Architecture.pdf (Size: 1.98 MB / Downloads: 29)
Why is this research exciting?
Making petascale computers work well detailed knowledge of theway their many
processors communicate. Details include bandwidth, data delay requirements and
low-level communication details. A scientist's time is better spent doing science, not
struggling with low-level details. The proposed “PetaFlops Router” will provide the
performance of highly parallel, custom hardware, while allowing the user to program
in easy-to-use, high-level concepts.
What is the approach?
The PetaFlops Router is based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), a
reconfigurable integrated circuit technology that is widely used in the
telecommunications industry. It can provide the performance expected of
custom integrated circuits and yet be optimized for many different classes of
applications. Not only can the system be optimized through reconfiguration of
the intra-chip logic, but also by rerouting the flow of information through the
inter-chip network. This represents a key innovation of the system: to adapt
the entire computer architecture to the particular application, including the lowlevel
network fabric.