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Grid Processing

Posted by Hemos on from the all-together-now dept.

c1ay writes "We've all heard the new buzzword, "grid computing" quite a bit in the news recently. Now the EE Times reports that a team of computer architects at the University of Texas here plans to develop prototypes of an adaptive, gridlike processor that exploits instruction-level parallelism. The prototypes will include four Trips(Tera-op Reliable Intelligently Adaptive Processing System) processors, each containing 16 execution units laid out in a 4 x 4 grid. By the end of the decade, when 32-nanometer process technology is available, the goal is to have tens of processing units on a single die, delivering more than 1 trillion operations per second. In an age where clusters are becoming more prevalent for parallel computing I've often wondered where the parallel processor was. How about you?"

4 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Just out of curiosity.... by exebeoex · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A question for anyone with such experience:

    I assume it would be somewhat difficult to program efficiently for such systems. I don't mean just getting programs to run, but getting the most bang for your buck. Can anyone here confirm or deny this? Also does anyone know where to find resources on the topic of programming such machines (and no, I am not talking about smp docs or bewoulf docs or even pvm docs)?

  2. What about Transputers? by Tangurena · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Transputers were processors designed from the ground up for parallel processing. Have been around for years, but no one in America noticed them. Therefore they did not exist. I am surprised at the constant reinvention of the wheel, because of the NIH principle (Not Invented Here).

    There are some programming languages designed for parallelism. Biggest hassle is efficiently partitioning problems into something parallel. Not all problems can be done faster by doing more of it at once.

  3. Grid computing? by dan+dan+the+dna+man · · Score: 5, Informative

    I still think this is not what is commonly understood by the term "Grid Computing". Maybe it's the environment I work in but to me Grid Computing means something else

    And is exemplified by projects like MyGrid.

    --
    I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
  4. Grid confusion by Handyman · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's funny how people always seem to find a way to confuse what is meant by a "grid". The posting talks about a "4x4 grid" without clarification of the term "grid", which is confusing because grid computing has nothing to do with processing units being lined up in a grid. The "grid" in "grid computing" comes from an analogy with the power grid, not from any form of "grid layout". The analogy is based on the fact that with grid computing, you simply plug your "computing power client appliance" (not necessarily a PC, could be the fridge) into the "computing power outlet" in the wall (a network port, usually), and you can "consume computing power", like you would do with electricity. Computational grids don't even necessarily have to support parallel programs; it is easy to imagine grids that have a maximum allocated unit of a single processor. What makes such grids grids is that you can allocate the power on demand, when you need it, instead of that you have to have your own "computing power generator" (read: megapower CPU) at home.