[Beowulf] Chinese 16 core CPU uses message passing

[Eugen Leitl]

(experimental chip. not Godson)

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/02/21/chinese-16-core-cpu-uses-message-passing/

Chinese 16 core CPU uses message passing

Gone are the old days of massive shared memory architectures.

Feb 21, 2012 in Chips Tweet

by Mads Ølholm

During the first day of ISSCC in San Francisco research from Fudan University
in Shanghai described a brand new microprocessor that does away with the
traditional shared memory architecture.

    Photo courtesy of Fudan

The advantage of using a message passing scheme is that it scales much better
than the shared memory. Whereas shared memory relies on software, the message
passing scheme has been implemented using mailboxes designed in hardware,
according to the research paper that was presented at ISSC.  The processor
itself consists of 16 RISC cores that share two small cores for shared memory
access, but much of the communication is done using message passing. The
processor also does away with the traditional caches and instead implements
an extended register file.  The end result is a processor that has been
implemented on a TSMC 65nm L CMOS processor and runs at up to 800MHz. When
dialed back to 750MHz each core can run at 1.2V and only consume 34mW, which
shows that the design is extremely energy efficient.  We look forward to
seeing this in the wild.