In the multi-core era, the computer architecture is facing a thorough re-design

 

A study by the National Science Foundation of America believes that today's multi-core processors need a better way to program.

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To effectively use multi-core processors, a researcher at the University of Maryland said in a flagship telecommunications publication of the American Computer Society published in January, the IT industry needs to thoroughly reflect on the basic computer architecture that has been in use for more than 50 years.

Uzi vishkin, a professor at the Institute of Advanced Computer Science at the University of Maryland, said: "The recent large-scale migration from a single-processor computer system to a multi-processor Parallel System, it is required that many aspects of computer science that establish new systems and program them should be thoroughly transformed."

Vishkin even provided a new architecture abstract chart called Ice (instant parallel execution), which he developed with funding from the National Science Foundation.

The basic computer architecture we are using today is based on the concept proposed by John von norann of Data Science in 1940s. In his architecture, data and programs are stored in computer memory and fed to the computer's CPU. The program runs by using the program counter, which provides the CPU with the address of the next instruction to be executed in the memory.

This method allows serial computing called by vishkin. In this design, "any single instruction that can be executed in a serial program can be executed immediately ."

However, it is restricted because it can only execute a single command at a time. Vishkin said that in the era of multi-core processors and having a large amount of available memory, such restrictions are no longer needed. Instead, multiple commands can be executed in parallel more quickly-all commands are executed at the same time and only one step is required.

Vishkin's alternative method is different from the Von norann architecture, which allows countless commands to be executed at any specified time, which greatly simplifies the programmer's work. With ice, he said, "You can imagine any number of commands, as long as the input of one command is not the output of another command ." Programmers no longer need to worry about how many processors are available for the task.

Vishkin says this architecture requires a change in hardware design. As for the operating method, the chip may need to establish a high-bandwidth, low-latency network between the processor and the memory. The hardware requires a single processor core to control all other cores. If the code is serial, it can be executed on that core. If there are other commands, the central processor can send other commands to other cores.

Vishkin owns six patents for the technology, and the research team has also established prototype hardware that can run on the ice abstract architecture. (