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.'"

Comments

Information free

[SnowZero]

Thanks for the information free summary...

Re:Information free

[Durinia]

He didn't have much to work with - the press release (err..."article") was information free, too!

Re:Information free

[dch24]

Well they can't write something like "We built yet another piece of programmable hardware" can they?

No, but they should. Not that I dislike Raytheon inherently, but they are certainly spinning this press release pretty hard. It's just programmable hardware. It's an attempt to catch the attention of the government because there are two Military-Industrial coalitions bidding right now for the military's next generation satellite system (which will be a contract worth tens of billions of dollars for about the next decade).

Since the press release is so light on detail, obviously the actual hardware isn't that impressive. Note things like these quotes:

In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10

Oh, really? And how many libraries of congress per fortnight is that?

for such purposes as global positioning systems, airborne and space radar and video processing systems

Target audience, right there.

64 gigaflops (floating point operations per second) with more than 60 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per second of off-chip data bandwidth.

This is at least a little bit of information. However, those numbers are similar to current generation CPUs. I think the PS3 Cell can outperform this chip, so unless we have some power numbers it's unimpressive.

It's not a big surprise. It's just a press release and a slashvertisement.

Re:Information free

[Anonymous Coward]

It is important to understand that current generation CPU's, GPU's....etc, cannot be flown in space. Energetic particles wreak havoc on such small feature sets. SEU's and latch up are serious issues.

Re:Information free

[mkramer]

The problem with existing high-throughput processors are, as you pointed out, power consumption, plus achievable throughput, I/O throughput, and space readiness.

For most front-end type signal processing, the MONARCH design approaches that of an FPGA in terms of utilization efficiency. When it comes to the next-gen sensors for DoD applications, the Cell doesn't have near the I/O capability required (or, more correctly, the I/O options don't match the processing resource requirements, so you lose efficiency), and there's no way on earth (no pun intended) that a Cell will operate error-free in a radiation-rich environment at its current clock rates.

Yes, it's designed for a niche market. Hopefully one bigger than just next-gen satellites, but it was never meant to replace your desktop or your toaster.

But...

[rrohbeck]

does it support multiple inheritance?

Re:But...

[spun]

Is it fully buzzword compliant?

Re:But...

[dgatwood]

To topple it, they'll need to create the Amorphable Networked Micro-Architecture (ANARCH).

:-)

Re:But...

[carlmenezes]

You've got it all wrong people! MONARCH is actually the result of the military's research into other forms of government. They're getting quite tired of 'ol Bush. Somebody just needs to add the final Yes :)
*ducks*

Beyond state of the art?

[ivan256]

Does that mean it's vaporware? If it exists, how can it be beyond state of the art?

Re:Beyond state of the art?

[Anonymous Coward]

Their state-of-the-art-meter goes to eleven.

Sounds Familiar

[PetoskeyGuy]

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. ;)

Re:Off-topic post (OTP)

[richdun]

Eh, better than redundant acronyms. That's just lazy.

It also seems to be a trend to using clever sounding words without actually imparting any useful information. It's like everyone thinks everyone else is either too dumb to understand the complexity or subject matter of what we're doing, or too smart to fall for whatever we're trying to pass off as "new" or "innovative."

They should no better

[hey!]

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.

Vs. FPGA?

[yeggman]

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?

Re:Vs. FPGA?

[Jake73]

An FPGA could provide the same functionality, but at a tremendous loss of efficiency. FPGAs have a very high overhead to support reconfiguration. But the reconfiguration is considerably more than this processor (likely) offers. (I couldn't read the article - dead link)

But with a claim of incredible power efficiency, it's decidedly not an FPGA. I imagine they borrow some of the concepts, but not entirely.

As a hybrid, FPOA (field-programmable object arrays) provide small programmable "objects" which are less granular than typical FPGA offerings. In the right application, an FPOA can achieve higher speeds and better power efficiency. In the "wrong" application, they're horrible.

It seems that this device would switch between the high computational efficiency of DSPs and things like graphics processors and the better branching / decision-making performance of general-purpose CPUs.

Sounds more like FPGAs

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Reconfigurable computing using a bunch of FPGAs.

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.

Re:Sounds more like FPGAs

[DragonWriter]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. In fact, I was thinking that, brand names aside, the marketing-speak in the summary sounded exactly like the marketing-speak for the Starbridge systems FPGA-based "hypercomputers" when they were announced in the mid-late 1990s.

Re:Sounds more like FPGAs

[julesh]

Reconfigurable computing using a bunch of FPGAs.

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!

'"In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10," said Michael Vahey, the principal investigator for the company's MONARCH technology.'

I don't think you can achieve that with current generation FPGAs. At least not for the "back-end control and data processing" they claim to be one of their applications -- it should be achievable for "front-end signal processing", though.

Polymorphic?

[aardvarkjoe]

"The MONARCH zaps itself with a wand of polymorph. The arch-lich hits! Oh no, it's using the touch of death! You die..."

not new

[Anonymous Coward]

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

First a real Skynet and now this...

[Hubec]

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.

Re:I, for one...

[Taleron]

Brock: Don't you have anything else to do but harp on Dr. Venture? Why haven't you tried the World Domination thing, you afraid of the big leagues?

The Monarch: Please. How stupid do I look to you? World Domination. I'll leave that to the religious nuts or the Republicans, thank you.

Re:Off-topic post (OTP)

[Yoooder]

Hmm... I need to think of a name that will neatly fit into Antidisestablishmentarianism

You get what you pay for...

[msauve]

that free info was wrong.

The first Polymorphic computer was introduced in 1976.

It gets better...

[bconway]

Don't forget, it's from the company that brought us the Patriot Missile (TM), so you know it's gonna be good.