Sean Kelly
Free Thinker
offline
Registered: Jan 2003
Local time: 06:21 AM
Location: Silicon Valley
Posts: 4292
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Super computer for drugs industry
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A group of researchers from Singapore has created a computer chip that has the power of 100 standard computers.
The group of five, all working at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, will commercialize their development by January and sell it to the pharmaceutical industry, where they say the invention will save time and money.
[...]
"It is 100 times quicker than your standard computer. Most people do not need such a powerful computer, but in the area of designing and developing drugs, it is hugely important," says Nathan.
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Now this is a pretty interesting concept that I can imagine benefitting the video gaming and other computing industries one day. I would propose a slight variant to the design: use a core, software-programmable processor (like a typical PC or game console CPU) to provide baseline system functionality and then add-on one or more re-programmable processors that can be adapted to the technical requirements of the game or other software being loaded up. This model could potentially grant unprecedented, flexible computational capacity to computer systems that would open an entire new realm of useful possibilities.
The proof of concept already exists: a gaming console or computer typically operates an additional, dedicated 3D/grapical processor that is specially programmed to handle display rendering elements that are handed up to it from the core CPU. This makes today's intricate 3D gaming environments possible even with comparatively lower performing core system CPU's.
So if you were to take this idea and say okay instead of a dedicated graphics processor that performs specific tasks no matter what software is running, generalize the secondary processor's capability with programmability. It could be rewired to provide 3D functions needed for one game and not another. It would open an entirely new world of 3D capabilities that processor developers can only imagine now.
The future lies here!
Smile; It confuses people.  |
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11-22-2004 08:58 PM
