Friday, February 24, 2006

A 1,000-processor computer for $100K? | CNET News.com

A 1,000-processor computer for $100K? | CNET News.com

BERKELEY, Calif.--It's not easy to get hardware designers and software developers in sync when it comes to developing a new computer architecture, according to Dave Patterson, one of the pioneers of the original RISC architecture.

"If you can put 25 CPUs in one FPGA, you can put 1,000 CPUs in 40 FPGAs," Patterson said during a symposium here this week at UC Berkeley, where he is a professor of electrical engineering. Such a computer would cost about $100,000, he estimated. It would also take up relatively little space--about one-third of a rack--and consume only about 1.5 kilowatts of power.

No comments: