Re: FPGAs and Heat (Re: Paranoid Musings)
At 9:39 AM 8/1/96, Scott Schryvers wrote:
This was about a year and a half ago. I can't remember the name of it, but this chip fab industry mag was talking about how the NSA was obtaining out side help in fabricating what was at the time a type of ram that did processing off chip in parrallel.
This was a company in Bowie, Maryland, closely linked with the NSA and with the "supercomputer centers." The idea of "processing in memory" has been explored by various companies. By the way, on the subject of using FPGAs for computers, here's a URL I found that's interesting: http://www.io.com/~guccione/HW_list.html
Side note: Wired just recently talked about IRAM or Intelligent ram, and how it seems to be the future of high speed computation.
Side side note: I worked on Intel's "iRAM," standing for "intelligent RAM," in 1980-81. It found little market success. The idea of changing the architecture of RAM bubbles up every few years, but has not yet succeeded (except in some video-specific applications). Cautionary Note: Bubble memories, laser pantography, integrated injection logic, e-beam addressed memory, neural nets, Josephson junctions.... When you've watched the industry for enough years you'll learn to cast a jaundiced eye on pronouncements that a technology is the Next Big Thing. The above list--which covers only chips, not similar Next Big Things in software--is a list of some of the things "Wired" would've hyped, had it been published back then. Most such announcements come out public relations departments at major public labs, or from over-enthusiastic VCs. Or from claims made in papers presented at the International Solid State Circuits Conference and similar conferences. Reporters seeking stories then push the story. The usual form of the press release goes something like this: "The discovery of foobartronic switches may mean chips that are ten times faster and one hundred times denser. Researchers say the foobartronic revolution could reshape the entire industry..." Few of the advances reported in "Wired" will ever see the light of day.... Some will, of course, but it's useful to remember that most of it is hype. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
Timothy C. May writes:
This was a company in Bowie, Maryland, closely linked with the NSA and with the "supercomputer centers." The idea of "processing in memory" has been explored by various companies.
That's one of the things that killed Thinking Machines. It turned out that a standard supercomputer with PIM chips for memory could give the same performance for less money. The PIMs did the massively parallel computation with the standard architecture redistributing data as needed using high bandwidth scatter-gather operations and moves. At the time Thinking Machines went under, Seymour Cray had a big contract for Cray Computer to deliver a PIM Cray machine to the government, but he missed some deadlines, got cancelled, and his company went down the tubes as well. Too bad, it would have been a nice box. BTW, I gave up trying to predict innovations after being dragged down to see an early version of Visi-Calc running on an Apple, and horribly insulting the developers with comments like "But why would anyone want to emulate a ledger sheet?" and "I hope you guys didn't spend a lot of time on this." After repeating such performances at startups like Lotus and Infocom, I realized that predictive history was not one of my talents. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd@netcom.com $ via Finger. $
Timothy C. May writes:
This was a company in Bowie, Maryland, closely linked with the NSA and with the "supercomputer centers."
That's one of the things that killed Thinking Machines. It turned out that a standard supercomputer with PIM chips for memory could give the same performance for less money.
See: http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/beuwolf/beuwolf.html Don is doing interesting things with less... -- A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
Mike Duvos wrote: | That's one of the things that killed Thinking Machines. It turned out [...] | At the time Thinking Machines went under, Seymour Cray had a big contract Just a nit, but Thinking Machines is still in business, and has had their first few profitable quarters. www.think.com Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume
Adam Shostack wrote:
| That's one of the things that killed Thinking Machines. It turned out [...] | At the time Thinking Machines went under, Seymour Cray had a big contract
Just a nit, but Thinking Machines is still in business, and has had their first few profitable quarters. www.think.com
The current Thinking Machines is a software firm, and Daniel Hillis is no longer amongst the top management. The name lives on, but the business of designing, building, and selling exotic supercomputers is kaput. Not an uncommon story in the computer business. Even Control Data Corporation still exists in a transmogrified form, although their mainframe business went up in smoke ages ago. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd@netcom.com $ via Finger. $
participants (4)
-
Adam Shostack -
David Lesher -
mpd@netcom.com -
tcmay@got.net