[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Parallella multi-processor chip/board - successfully crowd funded



Hi All,
OK, the Parallella multi-processor chips/boards are now successfully crowd-funded - a huge surge with 12 hours to go.
I myself am down for a 64 processor chip/board.

I have sent them the following text, asking them to set up the following sub-groups :

1) A Software Radio group - my company www.Lab-Tools.com  develops instrumentation for NMR. The group need to know the GPIO connector pin-outs, timing, etc so we can have ADC DAC boards ready for when the Parallella is shipped.

2) A high-level array-based languages for multiprocessing group - I have extended the Apl compiler aplc and added multi-processing capabilities, and have compiled the run-time library for many processors including recently XMOS and the Altera NiosII soft processors - Parallella will be an excellent substrate/ host. Talking to the Parallella from Lab-VIEW is also a priority.
Cheers,
	Beau

-----Original Message-----
From: P.H.Welch [mailto:P.H.Welch@xxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: 27 September 2012 18:58
To: J.B.W.Webber; occam-com@xxxxxxxxxx; rick.beton@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Occam-Tau - the natural successor to Occam-Pi


Hi Beau,

> However for my sins these days I spend quite a bit of my time writing 
> VHDL for the FPGA based instrumentation I design for my experiments.
> And I keep looking at the concept of the multiple soft processors with 
> fast interconnection links that can fit on these chips.
> 
> Is there any possibility of any of these Occam related parallel 
> languages  being of use for sitting inside / generating code for these 
> soft processors, on a reasonable time-scale ?

Take a look at:

  http://www.xmos.com/

This was founded by David May (chief architect for the transputer and occam) and others a few years ago.  They are targetting (I think) customers with needs exactly like those you describe.  Their XC language is a specialised derivative from occam and their chips seem designed as FPGA replacements:
soft hardware re-programmable in an occam-like manner with very sleek hardware support for concurrency (up to 32 processes anyway).

Cheers,

Peter.