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The Economics of Chips With Many Cores

meanonymous writes "HPCWire reports that a unique marketing model for 'manycore' processors is being proposed by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers. The current economic model has customers purchasing systems containing processors that meet the average or worst-case computation needs of their applications. The researchers contend that the increasing number of cores complicates the matching of performance needs and applications and makes the cost of buying idle computing power increasingly prohibitive. They speculate that the customer will typically require fewer cores than are physically on the chip, but may want to use more of them in certain instances. They suggest that chips be developed in a manner that allows users to pay only for the computing power they need rather than the peak computing power that is physically present. By incorporating small pieces of logic into the processor, the vendor can enable and disable individual cores, and they offer five models that allow dynamic adjustment of the chip's available processing power."

7 of 343 comments (clear)

  1. Where can we store that many cores?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Well, step aside my friend
    I've been doing it for years
    I say, sit on down, open your eyes
    And open up your ears

    Say
    Put a tree in your butt
    Put a bumblebee in your butt
    Put a clock in your butt
    Put a big rock in your butt
    Put some fleas in your butt
    Start to sneeze in your butt
    Put a tin can in your butt
    Put a little tiny man in your butt
    Put a light in your butt
    Make it bright in your butt
    Put a TV in your butt
    Put me in your butt
    Everybody say

    I, hey, that's, man, I ain't putting no trees in nobody's butt,
    no bees in nobody's butt, putting nothing--
    You must be out your mind, man,
    y'all get paid for doing this?
    Cause y'all gotta get some kind of money
    Cause this don't sound like the kind of--
    I'd rather golf, to be perfectly honest,
    than put somethin in somebody's butt
    to be truthful

    Well step aside my friend and let me
    show you how you do it
    When big bad E just rock rock to it

    Put a metal case in your butt
    Put her face in your butt
    Put a frown in your butt
    Put a clown in your butt
    Sit on down in your butt
    Put a boat in your butt
    Put a moat in your butt
    Put a mink coat in your butt
    Put everything in your butt
    Just start to sing about your butt
    Feels real good

  2. 640 cores is enough for anyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    niggers :(

  3. Multicore NIGGERS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    When can we, the consumer, get access to niggers with multiple cores?

  4. The role of the vendor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The role of the vendor is simple:
    to put niggers on blocks and sell them to the highest bidder.

    Vendor tip: be sure to split up families for maximum tears... and maximum laughs!

  5. UofI at Urbana-Champaign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Is that a good school?
    Many niggers go there?

  6. There is such a thing as too many cores, y'know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You CAN be too rich, too thin, and have too many cores.

    And too many niggers. My personal nig-limit is 0, but YMMV.

    Hoo wee!

  7. Re:This is a truly stupid idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The thesis is so poor it's not even wrong.

    Assumption 1: "the associated cost of buying unused computing power becomes more prohibitive."

    Assumption 2: "the cost of manufacturing the processor does not rise linearly with the number of cores on the die"

    Can you say "mutually contradictory assumptions"?