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Power Parallelism
Ambric Accelerates Algorithms
Happy Birthday to Us
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Soft Core War
LatticeMico32 Opens the Field
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JOURNAL WEBCASTS

Power Parallelism
Ambric Accelerates Algorithms

Computing architectures have reached a critical juncture. The monolithic microprocessor has collided with the thermal wall with a resounding, "Ouch! That's too hot!" Traditional processor architects have moved on to dual-and-more core processors, pursuing some parallelism to mitigate their power problems. Other technologies have responded with "Hey, if parallelism is the solution, why not really go for it?" Compute acceleration with devices like FPGAs can boost the number of numbers crunched per second per Watt by orders of magnitude, but programming them is an activity akin to custom hardware design – hardly safe territory for the average software developer seeking to speed up his favorite algorithm.

What so many have been seeking is an architecture that combines efficient parallelizing of the performance core of demanding algorithms with the ease of programming and predictability of traditional von Neumann-based machines. A number of approaches to the problem have emerged over the past couple of years, each working to overcome the key problem of ease of programming while delivering on the promise of parallelism. [more]