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World's First Polymorphic Computer
tdelama writes to mention Raytheon Company has developed the first polymorphic computer named the Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture (MONARCH) for the US Department of Defense. "'Typically, a chip is optimally designed either for front-end signal processing or back-end control and data processing,' explained Nick Uros, vice president for the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. 'The MONARCH micro-architecture is unique in its ability to reconfigure itself to optimize processing on the fly. MONARCH provides exceptional compute capacity and highly flexible data bandwidth capability with beyond state-of-the-art power efficiency, and it's fully programmable.'"
Thanks for the information free summary...
does it support multiple inheritance?
thegodmovie.com - watch it
I'm convinced it's a trend these days to build names around clever sounding acronyms and not the reverse. It seems like 'cheating' to me.
Its made for the Department of Defense, it probably costs $5,000 a chip.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
Does that mean it's vaporware? If it exists, how can it be beyond state of the art?
Low Power, Able to adapt / optimize itself as needed. Sounds like the old Transmeta designs. It would compile and execute code in the processor to emulate x86 commands as needed instead of hard wiring them.
;)
Of course it also sounds like terminator chip but I think that was from another company and should have already happened by now.
There is very, very little new under the sun.
Back in the early 1970s there was a mini computer called the "Meta 4" whose microprogramming could be changed on the fly. The purpose was to let you run software written for other vendors' instruction sets.
While the chip being discussed may do other spiffy stuff to optimize its performance in different roles, you really can't call it the first "polymorphic" computer.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
How does this compare to a Field Programmable Gate Array?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA
Is this a bunch of those plus some BIOS like program to optimize it?
rush some of them to the hosting provider for the site!
All FPGA vendors now offer CPU cores (or you can get others from opencores.org). These cores can do a slew of different functions from DSP to straight CPU functions... and yes they do run Linux!
For example, Xilinx FPGAs can be reconfigured to run at least 5 different CPU cores, including Java processors etc in single or multi-core arrangements. They can also be reconfigured to do hardware DSP (eg. GPS receivers, sonar processing...). They can implement any peripheral function you care to think of. This makes them pretty versatile for military applications: instead of having to carry a whole raft of different hardware, you can carry one set of boards which can be reconfigured as required.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Just asking.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
"The MONARCH zaps itself with a wand of polymorph. The arch-lich hits! Oh no, it's using the touch of death! You die..."
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
run Winbloze?
I, for one, welcome our MONARCH overlords.
Wait...
doesn't sound like a massively new idea at all...
Cypress semi currently making a MPU that has digital and analog blocks and can reconfigure itself on the fly, its call PSoC.
example: Coke uses it in their new vending machines, the chip is configured as a mpu during the day and runs the interface, at night it reconfigures itself into a modem to upload data to coke.
all these people have done is take 6 FPU cores and slapped them on top of a FPGA (or similar programmable logic bank)....good idea? yes. revolutionary? no...
and its not a computer, its a high speed DSP chip "In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10," wow, so you built a chip designed for a specific purpose and compared it to a general CPU, good job. You can build an algorithm into a $15 FPGA and have it out-perform a quad core xeon....so?
-xian
Get a 100k of these running in parallel, give em a self organizing and threading algorithm and run for cover. On the plus side Schwarzenegger's armageddon would be much more interesting than Gore's alternative.
Does it run linux?
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
A post about a processor and the word Beowolf has not yet been mentioned?
There sincerly must be a mistake!
They've invented Reconfigurable Computing!
What a novel idea....
If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
Linux and Monarch sounds like a perfect MS replacement.
Now we can build units with heavy artillery!
None of you got that, did you...
A few years ago I started writing a novel. I never finished it, although...
1 8/178205
People there were using very small (smaller than a coin) thought-controlled self-modifying computers connected in a peer-to-peer wireless network to communicate with each other and the environment. You think "open the door" and the door opens. You think "it's too bright out there" and your sunglasses dim. You think to that guy: "hey, dude!" and he can "hear" you. You can talk to each other not by opening your mouth, but your minds, thanks to these little chips. The chips are adaptive, so if someone's trying to spam your head with ads, you will at most "hear" "buy coca-co..."
Thought controlled computers were presented on CeBit.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/
Now self-modifying processor architecture is available.
The novel's action took place in 2056 or so. Once again it seems that the future is much closer than we may think.
a beowulf cluster of these?
As Norman O. Brown may have put it...."Is it polymorphically perverse?"
I am sitting in the charred remains of my once-mighty Flying Cocoon. Anyone want to explain why my Cocoon is charred?
I agree with many comments, this seams so not new... ...on first read it reminded me of "Hypercomputers" by Starbridge systems which [at the time c.2000] had a desktop based on FPGAs boards that matched Cray performance.... and could withstand a Magnum shot through the system (excluding PSU) and still run with minor perf hit.
/. article by LordMyren...
/ 09/1824253&tid=137
;)
.358 magnum and it'd still function.
At the time you could get a demo video of this 'experiment' in action, however I've drawn short on evidence now we're in 2007.... my only trace via Google is this ol'
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/04
"That Star Bridge Systems is still about to unleash a whole new ball game.
*twiddle* any day now gents. honestly, it looks like OpenCores might get there first.
One of they're earlier claims was it was so dynamically reconfigurable you should shoot it with a
I still dont see how even 100% utilization of FPGA's could so much as touch 10% utilization of a good ole cray. They're both massively parallel, sure, but one of em's got like upteen bajillion processors. A system full of as many top of the line FPGA's as you can cram in there still aint going to be that fast.
Either way, it sounds like some really cool vaporware.
Myren"
N.B. I don't agree with this point in time synopsis, as there was a perf / cost analysis against the Cray and the differential was massive... again anyone with the access to the old whitepapers etc... would be of interest.
Regards,
TheBrit
that free info was wrong.
The first Polymorphic computer was introduced in 1976.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
do we say 'check mate' ?
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
The Burroughs could reconfigure itself also. But that was the 70's and this new machine is... new so it must be the first!
http://www.answers.com/topic/burroughs-b1700
Don't forget, it's from the company that brought us the Patriot Missile (TM), so you know it's gonna be good.
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
Even in consumer goods space you often need some gates for a particular logic/dsp function + you need a micro for supervisory/user interaction type activity. You could use an FPGA + a normal micro or you could just run the micro in the FPGA. These days the gates required to run a low-end micro in an FPGA only cost 50c or so, about the same cost as a very low end 8-bit micro. A $3 FPGA will run an 8-bit CPU core + do a whole raft of other functions. The FPGA-based solution has some interesting benefits: (1) Less chips and board area == reduced manufacturing cost. (2) Ability to customise parts to your specification without the costs (time and money) normally associated with doing an ASIC. (3) Less issues with parts supply.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The text starts out making it sound like it's got a cluster of FPGAs, reconfigurable on the fly, for the bulk of its structure (or at least the data path).
But by the time they're done they could even be talking about the Siemens/Infineon TriCore (an embedded processor core with an feature-rich instruction set suitable for process control, serious crunch, or DSP).
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Buzzwords aside, a chip that could, rather than require a hypervisor to translate machine code, change to execute the code for the VM whose task is being executed that quantum, would bring a large speed increase.
For example, one can have a RS/6000 partition running AIX, a simulated ARM processor running a version of Windows Mobile, Solaris on SPARC, and Windows Server 2003 on x86, and when the task switcher changes to the next VM, the chip can natively execute that platform's instructions. No JIT caching needed.
"New Shimmer is both a floor wax and a dessert topping!"
More like $50,000 per chip today. But in years to come the chip will be available for mass market and it will be only $50.
Poly88
It was a kit, 16x32 display used 1/2 of the 1K of memory.
I traded it for a HP41C. Wish I had it back.
According to Dr. Daystrom, who developed this technology, it is capable of producing a computer far more powerful than the older, duotronic systems which we're accustomed to. Others have suggested, however, that the new technology may yield program execution that is less deterministic, perhaps even less reliable than the conventional systems.
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
Does it run Linux?
I for one welcome our new microelectronic polymorphic overlords
A thousand years from now, they will eventually reach the conclusion that what they should have done all along would be to gather a number of ants and provide them a large pile of sand, sprinkled with pieces of rope, glass, wood and metal bits.
It's a breakrhrough; but we've seen hundreds posted; we're still in silicon, not-light, no amoebas on our chips...has anyone seen a post on Slashdot of something anyone's actually taken to market? (It reminds me of the reports of flying cars in the early 60's...)
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Since when did slashdot become a corporate mouthpiece?
Could this article have added anything to a serious discussion of technology?
Maybe somebody can tell me. Until then I'm a bit disappointed. This really doesn't deserve to be on the front page. --Peter
Sounds like it's above your head. Just move on, don't sweat it.
Yeah, but does it run Linux?
The MONARCH chip is designed to fit into the new DR GIRLFRIEND deep and raspy socket.