chiguy wrote on 07/24/13 at 18:37:13:This is very cool. I had thought the Raspberry Pi project was pretty neat, but this is over the top. I see that there is an HDMI connection. It wasn't clear: does that imply that there is some kind of graphics capability on the card, or do you have to rsh in or something? Looks like this would be a blast for someone with time on their hands.
Every card has a A-9 on it to provide HDMI video, I/O and other services. Every card is a complete PC. Every card can run Ubuntu by itself (or in parallel with other cards).
If you read just my blurbs about this new stuff - that generally provides just very minimal information. Links to more complete information are always provided (generally up at the top) but it requires you to click on the links and READ all the stuff therein and click on the links contained inside that stuff to go to new stuff and read that. It takes some time to get caught up with a new concept like this.
Having done some of that, I would WAIT until the 28nm 64 core Epiphany chipsets are produced (to give that first wave of 16 core Epiphany chips some time to generate all the bugs and driver issues, etc. and to get them all fixed) and to give it time for the Ubuntu version to solidify somewhat.
By then you will also have a good grasp on what practical use the thing will actually be to you -- I get the impression that some real rocket scientists are interested in these things for some heavy duty serious uses.
But these are also the same people who write their own applications in raw code. They can get past a lot of little speed bumps that would stop you or I stone cold. We are looking for speed running canned applications and apps, which does not require this level of computing power. What we need and want is a great balance of CPU speed and GPU speed and balance in the I/O systems to support all that.
This thing is Severely Out of Balance on the CPU side, mega strong on computing and number crunching, but not so hot playing video games I would suspect.
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But yes, the 8-9 year olds who first learn how to program something simple on a Pi might graduate into something like this by the time they go to college and graduate. It would be the cat's meow to help you with a doctorate dissertation.
By the time that occurs we will be down at 10nm or better, and the power these things could fling would be 100x more per card than this first one being show at this particular point in time.
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Still, it throws "BS on that" to the idea that a bunch of little ARM cores can't parallel process into data crunching numbers that are seriously powerful, equal to or better to far more expensive Intel X86 chips.
The first 64 bit ARM A-53 littles (next summer) will also be a candidate for this sort of power multiplication trick. 8 of them will be quite kick ass compared to the normal software needs for anything you can generally do in Ubuntu Linux or Android.
And bet on it, somebody is gonna come up with a small slotted rack with metal RF shielded heat spreader "plug in" processor cards that can stack up a lot more than 8 each of the A53 littles per plug in card, making up QUITE A LOT of computing power for, as you can see, for not very much money or space.
They are thinking about it as we speak.
CAD drawings already exist for the rack.
The card format is an industry standard plug in card format, so the connection system is off the shelf for the plug in rack system. The stuff is just a little "big" for the tiny arm chips on the card, so you can fill the card up with A-53s without stretching the contacts, etc for power carry, etc.
Major data center hardware companies are building this sort of stuff AS WE SPEAK because the raw power savings needed to run the thing is HUGE and you get 4 times that much savings again from not needing the humongous cooling systems that a data center requires today.
Last time I researched it, you could throw away your current IBM or Calexdra or Intel or Dell data center and completely pay for a much more powerful ARM data center
inside of one year on the direct energy savings alone.
A one year ROI on a durable good is a no brainer, the bean counters just write you a check on the spot. They LOVE them one year ROI projects.