DISQUS

Louis Savain · 1 year ago

Tilera is one of the most innovative multicore processor vendors out there. Their mesh technology simply rocks. However its claim that the C language makes it easy to write parallel code for the TILE64 is hogwash. Using conventional thread-based languages to write parallel code is a royal pain in the butt and everybody knows it. This is preceisely why some people complain that there is too much processing power for exisiting apps. If the TILE64 processors were easy to program, the apps would be developed.

Another problem, in my opinion, is Tilera's choice of a conventional sequential CPU for its core architecture. The truth is that anybody with any sense can see that the CPU is on its death bed. The future of parallel computing is in vector processing, period. Seymour Cray proved that years ago. And by vector processing I don't mean GPUs. GPUs are not universal parallel processors because they use an SIMD configuration. I mean pure MIMD vector processors for general purpose parallel processing. Vector processing would increase the performance of the TILE64 by orders of magnitude. One homogeneous processor to handle anything you can throw at it.

As an aside, Nvidia could conceivably redesign its GPUs to use MIMD and, in so doing, make a killing. Nvidia's future is not tied to the CPU and, as such, it is ideally positioned to dominate the processor industry in the next few decades if it plays its cards right. Come to think of it, Nvidia should just acquire Tilera. Their technologies complement each other. Intel and AMD would not know what hit them until it was too late. Just a thought.