Re: Intel details future Larrabee graphics chip

JosephKK wrote:
On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:51:57 GMT, Jan Panteltje
<pNaonStpealmtje@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On a sunny day (Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:08:52 -0700) it happened John Larkin
<jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<d10m94d7etb6sfcem3hmdl3hk8qnels3kg@xxxxxxx>:

Been there - done that :-)

That is precisely how the early SMP systems worked, and it works
for dinky little SMP systems of 4-8 cores. But the kernel becomes
the bottleneck for many workloads even on those, and it doesn't
scale to large numbers of cores. So you HAVE to multi-thread the
kernel.
Why? All it has to do is grant run permissions and look at the big
picture. It certainly wouldn't do I/O or networking or file
management. If memory allocation becomes a burden, it can set up four
(or fourteen) memory-allocation cores and let them do the crunching.
Why multi-thread *anything* when hundreds or thousands of CPUs are
available?

Using multicore properly will require undoing about 60 years of
thinking, 60 years of believing that CPUs are expensive.

John
Ah, and this all reminds me about when 'object oriented programming' was going to
change everything.
It did lead to such language disasters as C++ (and of course MS went for it),
where the compiler writers at one time did not even know how to implement things.
Now the next big thing is 'think an object for every core' LOL.
Days of future wasted.
All the little things have to communicate and deliver data at the right time to the right place.
Sounds a bit like Intel made a bigger version of Cell.
And Cell is a beast to program (for optimum speed).

Part of what many others are saying you no longer need optimum
performance, just good performance. Good enough is the mortal enemy
of the best. This seems to be true in all areas of endeavor.

Maybe it will work for graphics, as things are sort of fixed, like to see real numbers though.
Couple of PS3s together make great rendering, there is a demo on youtube.


There have been many "silver bullet" fixes since the 1960's.
Structured Programming, Literate Programming, several programming
languages, Rapid Prototyping, CASE, OOA / OOD, Provable Software (in
the mathematical sense), and numerous others.

Has any of them worked(?), No (except on a few restricted cases).

Does anyone here actually use a s/w methodology?
For the most part I do top down and bottom up. Basic outline first, then write the peripherals drivers and low level routines that I know I'm going to need. It usually all meets up in the middle without a problem.

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Intel details future Larrabee graphics chip
    ... That is precisely how the early SMP systems worked, ... for dinky little SMP systems of 4-8 cores. ... and this all reminds me about when 'object oriented programming' was going to ... And Cell is a beast to program (for optimum speed). ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Intel details future Larrabee graphics chip
    ... That is precisely how the early SMP systems worked, ... for dinky little SMP systems of 4-8 cores. ... and this all reminds me about when 'object oriented programming' was going to ... And Cell is a beast to program (for optimum speed). ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Intel details future Larrabee graphics chip
    ... That is precisely how the early SMP systems worked, ... for dinky little SMP systems of 4-8 cores. ... Why multi-thread *anything* when hundreds or thousands of CPUs are ... Sounds a bit like Intel made a bigger version of Cell. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Intel details future Larrabee graphics chip
    ... That is precisely how the early SMP systems worked, ... for dinky little SMP systems of 4-8 cores. ... But the kernel becomes ... Sounds a bit like Intel made a bigger version of Cell. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Multithreaded scientific programming
    ... A partial answer to some of the questions you ask is that the HPC ... through the addition of more cores. ... this has huge ramafications on the high performance computing ... What tools exist (including alternative programming languages) to ease ...
    (sci.math.num-analysis)
Loading