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ATI's Stream Computing on the Way
SQLGuru writes to tell us that ATI has announced plans to release a new graphics product that could provide a shake-up for high performance computing. From the article: "ATI has invited reporters to a Sept. 29 event in San Francisco at which it will reveal 'a new class of processing known as Stream Computing.' The company has refused to divulge much more about the event other than the vague 'stream computing' reference. The Register, however, has learned that a product called FireStream will likely be the star of the show. FireStream product marks ATI's most concerted effort to date in the world of GPGPUs or general purpose graphics processor units. Ignore the acronym hell for a moment because this gear is simple to understand. GPGPU backers just want to take graphics chips from the likes of ATI and Nvidia and tweak them to handle software that normally runs on mainstream server and desktop processors."
Not "Steam Computing"...
Perhaps they're following Valve's lead and are introducing 'episodic' computing.
Except that GPGPUs are not a competitor for x86. Tell me how fast your C compiler will work on that nvidia or ATI card.
... oh wait. IBM did that.
If you're gonna beef up and make more general a GPU you might as well all it a Cell
NEXT!
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Pond Computing, Lake Computing or Ocean Computing?
They lack gravitational potential energy. Yeah, you can try to play around with extracting energy from the temperature gradiants of a lake or ocean (ponds don't have any worth worrying about), but it's just easier to stick a turbine in a stream to make the computer go; and unlike my heavy piston on a rope floating in a leaky sand filled cylinder engines the Sun carries the water back up to the upper reseviour for you.
KFG