Re: Parallel processing

[Compgo123@xxxxxxx]

David Fotland said

>I'd like to use the new 1 million gate Xilinx gate array to do some
>really fast custom hardware for go.  If we put 4 or 8 of these on a PCI
>card, we can get parallel processing for go in a very small box.

It's very interesting. A hardware Go program may also solve the copyright
piracy problem.

I'll summarize the messages and posts on this subject as follwoing.

1. The common consensus is that there is still a factor about 5 to go as CPU
clock rate is concerned.

2. New CPUs begin to incorporate parallell processing in them to further
increase the speed.

3. One way to achieve parallel processing is to use PC clusters. Many work
already being done in this area (see Darren Cook's message). Two major methods
used are Beowulf and Mosix.

4. Use plug in cards in PC. There are commecial numerical accelerator cards
available which uses up to two CPUs.

5. Use FPGAs either in the form of a plug in card or something else.
Especially  Xilinx gate arrays were mentioned. 



Dan Liu