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Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

zdnet.com

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Re: Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

#101

Post by ChuckMcM »

phaet0n wrote: post #50

I'm really disappointed about how shallow the discussions about Adapteva are, and have been, on HN. To remind everyone, the H = hacker. This device is a godsend, as far as I'm concerned. For the first time ever I get fully documented access to compute array on chip. No the architecture wasn't designed for anything specific, like graphics, but that means I don't get bogged down in details I don't care about, like some…

Well stated. When I got an OLPC the point wasn't that it was a "good" laptop, it was that it was a "documented" laptop and that is rare indeed. What I find particularly amusing are the comments on things like the Raspberry Pi (and Parallela) which talk about all the things they do with "real" computers that these things cannot do. Its amusing because when the first 8 bit machines, the Mark-8 the Altair 8800, and the KIM-1 came out the exact same criticisms were leveled against them from the the same sorts of people. People who were using the existing infrastructure (mini-computers at the time of the Altair) whining that you couldn't run multi-user, you had no storage to speak of, you probably couldn't even assemble a program much less compile one on them, etc etc etc. The Apple II got huge amounts of disrespect from the establishment as a "baby's toy" or a kids toy designed to look like a computer. Then Visicalc hit and those voices faded.

Not enough people understand what is and what isn't possible in a parallel computer setup. Creating a really really simple setup is a great way to let them get their heads around it without getting the information overload shutdown.

Re: Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

#102

Post by melling »

wmf wrote: post #70
melling wrote: post #45

I backed this project simply because it's a great idea to build a very small highly parallel computer that runs on very little power. Maybe this one won't hit it out of the park but it might give other people ideas. Building the first one of anything is always hard. Add a little serendipity and we might get an entirely new use for computers. Just saying that I could do more with a $99 graphics card sort of misses the…

It's such a great idea that AMD Kabini already did it.

Ok, so we should stop there and not encourage further development in the market? I want a 1000 core "Raspberry Pi" that sells for $50.

Let me know if there's anything else that I can do to help.

Re: Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

#105

Post by sliverstorm »

bilbo0s wrote: post #97
phaet0n wrote: post #50

I'm really disappointed about how shallow the discussions about Adapteva are, and have been, on HN. To remind everyone, the H = hacker. This device is a godsend, as far as I'm concerned. For the first time ever I get fully documented access to compute array on chip. No the architecture wasn't designed for anything specific, like graphics, but that means I don't get bogged down in details I don't care about, like some…

"...I'll use OpenCL so I can be hardware agnostic..." Woah now... Using OpenCL is imminently sensible for a large swath of applications. And "Hardware Agnosticism" is beneficial for a large number of reasons. This is only the first "accessible" platform that has been released... we can expect many, many more. DSL -> asm on each can get a bit tiresome. Many apps can benefit from running in more than one place. For ins…

I think his point is worrying about hardware agnosticism with a device like this is a bit like putting the cart before the horse.

Re: Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

#106

Post by sliverstorm »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #95
wmf wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ask what future things having something like this on a SoC would enable. I asked that and came up blank. And I haven't seen answers from anyone else, either. Has Adapteva themselves shown any examples where their chip beats a GPU?

"I fundamentally disagree that SoCs are different than desktop technology. They're just smaller. High-end architectures are already driven to be as power-efficient as possible, so when you cut them down they're still efficient. For example, Kabini is an "SoC" that has the same GCN CU as a "desktop" Kaveri or a discrete Radeon." You didn't really read what I said did you. A key factor for embedded electronics is power…

Yes, but in those 15W of power, Kabini will likely have 128 stream processors, and I suspect more memory bandwidth: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2278693

The Parallella doesn't seem inherently more appropriate for embedded devices; it just depends on your requirements. Kabini would be embarrassingly power-hungry in plenty of embedded applications, while the Parallella might be laughably slow in plenty of other embedded applications.

Don't forget, by the way, that "embedded" doesn't mean "battery".

Re: Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

#107

Post by NewAccnt »

I wonder how those in the performance computing sector feel about running a proprietary supervisor with built in DRM on each and every CPU? Raspberry users might not care when for just hobbyist applications, but I doubt any serious scientist is going to overlook that.

http://www.arm.com/products/processors/technologies/trustzon...

Re: Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

#108

Post by sliverstorm »

trotsky wrote: post #66
Xcelerate wrote: post #7

As someone who uses supercomputers, I'm not sure I entirely understand the market of this product. It's really cool and I'd love to have one to tinker with, but due to its high parallelization, I see no benefit of using this over a graphics card. I'm not sure if $99 can get you a GPU that reaches 90 GFlops though... perhaps that's where the benefit lies. EDIT: After reviewing their website, I notice they state > One…

I think this may just be a novel way to sell a dev board for their custom silicon and get some of that heavy kickstarter press coverage. If you figure that what they're really trying to do is get people familiar with it and see how well it might augment one of their existing ARM products it starts to make a lot of sense. For instance I have a low end 4 bay arm based nas. It's insanely modest specs (1.6ghz single core…

Interesting observations. I know AMD is making an ARM chip (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6418/amd-will-build-64bit-arm-...). Have they said anything about FP?

Re: Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

#109

Post by sliverstorm »

vidarh wrote: post #53
micheljansen wrote: post #43

Wow, I remember seeing the original Kickstarter for this and thinking "this will never see the light of day", yet here it is. I still find it a bit of an odd product; neither for hobby or business, but it sure is cheap.

It's a developer board. The product is the chips, not this board. This board is there mainly to get a dev board in the hands of people who might want to build cool stuff with it. That they've actually managed to get it price competitive with a lot of cheap ARM computers, despite sporting a Zynq (ARM SoC with built in FPGA) is amazing.

Can't help but wonder if they are in fact taking a loss, backed by Adapteva.

Re: Parallella, a $99 Linux Supercomputer

#110

Post by pekk »

mmanfrin wrote: post #103

Can someone explain to me how a $99 computer can have 45ghz of processing power, but an i7 costs 3x that for 1/10th that clock speed? What does this $99 miss out on that my i7 has the capability of doing?

This is kind of a novelty. Your i7 has way, way more power for jobs which only use a few cores. Most normal jobs are like that, so unless you have specific requirements, the i7 is going to give you much better performance.
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