Items tagged with SIMD
Imagination Technologies has announced the first CPU based on its new version of the MIPS architecture. The new P5600 chip (codenamed Warrior) is a 32-bit CPU based on the MIPS Series 5 architecture and is designed to challenge companies like ARM in the embedded and mobile markets. Major features of the new chip include: Support for 40-bit memory extensions, or up to 1TB of RAM rather than the typical 4GB limit associated with 32-bit processors. It's worth noting that there's typically a significant performance hit associated with this kind of work-around for memory addressing in 32-bit chips. A 128-bit SIMD engine (Single Instruction, Multiple Data). Companies like ARM, Intel, and AMD use various...
Read more...
Nvidia isn't happy with what it sees as the free pass Intel's upcoming Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture has gotten on the software front, and it's taken to the blogosphere to challenge it. The post begins with a lengthy discussion of what Nvidia is calling its "hybrid architecture," in which a CPU and GPU get together for great fun and massive execution of properly distributed workloads. The post is conveniently timed to land just before the Texas Advanced Computing Center's (TACC) joint symposium with Intel on highly parallel computing, which kicks off next week. What Nvidia takes issue with, according to the blog, is the idea that using an x86-compatible product like Knights Corner,...
Read more...
Intel's presentations at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) this year are focused on one of the biggest problems facing modern CPU designers—how to improve power efficiency without sacrificing compute performance. Intel isn't just tackling this problem through conventional process shrinks and smaller dies, however; the company detailed multiple new approaches. First up is Claremont, Intel's first chip built to run on Near Threshold Voltage (NTV) technology. The term "Near Threshold Voltage" refers to the amount of voltage required to switch a transistor from 0 to 1. Normally, the voltage variation between the two states is significant in order to prevent transistors...
Read more...
We've discussed the fragmentation of Android and the shoddy update services of the various carriers before, but the Droid 3's situation is raising these issues again. According to pre-CES reports, Verizon is poised to end-of-life (EOL) the Droid 3 along with its entire current lineup of MiFi hotspots. The BlackBerry Curve 3G and Palm Pre 2 are also reportedly on the chopping block, but the former is low-end device that's several years old, while the latter is a bit of an anachronism. The Droid 3, in contrast, is barely six months old. It's the only Motorola phone with a physical keyboard that Verizon carries, and it's already become a poster child for the problems with the Android ecosystem....
Read more...
One other additional tidbit of information from Intel's recent conference call offers some tantalizing rumors about the upcoming Core i7 architecture, codenamed Sandy Bridge. Officially, Intel isn't expected to launch SB until the end of Q4, but the chip is ramping well enough that Santa Clara might opt to pull the launch forward slightly and ship for revenue earlier. For those of you who aren't up on Intel's latest codenames, Sandy Bridge is a "tock" in Intel's Tick-Tock model. Intel splits its processor releases along these lines; a 'tick' refers to the launch of a new process technology, a 'tock' is a new CPU design. In this case, Intel isn't focusing on clock speeds (early projections have...
Read more...
