# A super computer for everyone!



## Tom (Oct 1, 2012)

I stole most of this article from hackaday FYI

Even though dual, quad, and octo-core CPUs have been around for a while, it’s a far cry from truly massive parallel computing platforms. The chip manufacturer Adapteva is looking to put dozens of CPUs in a small package with their Parallella project. As a bonus, they’re looking for funding on Kickstarter, and plan to open source their 16 and 64-core CPUs after funding is complete.

With any luck, the Parallella multicore computer will be available for $99, much less than a comparable x86 multicore computer. It’ll certainly be interesting to see what the Parallella can do in the future.
(I Did the rest of this article myself)







Some AMAZING specs:

Dual-core ARM A9 CPU
Epiphany Multicore Accelerator (16 or 64 cores)
1GB RAM
MicroSD Card
USB 2.0 (two)
Two general purpose expansion connectors
Ethernet 10/100/1000
HDMI connection
Ships with Ubuntu OS
Ships with free open source Epiphany development tools that include C compiler, multicore debugger, Eclipse IDE, OpenCL SDK/compiler, and run time libraries.
Dimensions are 3.4'' x 2.1''
45GHz Not a typo you read me 45GHz!!
$99
Once completed, the Parallella computer should deliver up to 45 GHz of equivalent CPU performance on a board the size of a credit card while consuming only 5 Watts under typical work loads. Counting GHz, this is more horsepower than a high end server costing thousands of dollars and  consuming 400W.







Kick starter link! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adapteva/parallella-a-supercomputer-for-everyone?ref=live

C'mon With the help of the Temp we can help them reach that goal.


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## MelodieOctavia (Oct 1, 2012)

Okay, but what is the purpose of this hardware?


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## 431unknown (Oct 1, 2012)

TwinRetro said:


> Okay, but what is the purpose of this hardware?



I don't know about you, but I'd use it to run 20 porn movies at a time while playing some Skyrim on the side.


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## Devin (Oct 1, 2012)

431unknown said:


> TwinRetro said:
> 
> 
> > Okay, but what is the purpose of this hardware?
> ...


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## Rydian (Oct 1, 2012)

tom10122 said:


> Counting GHz, this is more horsepower than a high end server costing thousands of dollars and consuming 400W.


Uh.  There's a problem.  GHz is not actually a measurement of speed.


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## DiscostewSM (Oct 1, 2012)

Having a potential of 45Ghz is only relevant if all the cores get utilized fully. How many programs nowadays fully use more than 2-3 cores at any given time? If there are 64 cores, and programs used only 2 cores at any given time, you'd fully utilize the hardware if you had 32 separate programs running. How many people run that many programs at any given time?


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## Tom (Oct 1, 2012)

Rydian said:


> tom10122 said:
> 
> 
> > Counting GHz, this is more horsepower than a high end server costing thousands of dollars and consuming 400W.
> ...


that is a quote from the manufacturer, but you have to admit 16-64 cores is awesome, the localized memory for each processor would also  increase speed


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## Whipple (Oct 1, 2012)

I can see many uses for this technology.
Next generation of protable hand-held gaming devices?
The basis for the next iteration of the K101 Revo with enhanced emulation?

Actually, I am not overly impressed with the specs of a dual-core ARM9 for the processor.
How exactly is this functionally different than a current PC utilizing Nvidia's CUDA technology for multi-core acceleration of processing tasks? (Think Nvidia FERMI chipset.)

BOINC has been using this concept to use ATI and Nvidia multicore video cards to assist and accelerate processing in distributed computing projects for some time now.

Speaking on distributed processing, why let your unused processing cycles go to waste when you are not using your computer?
Donate them to a worthwhile project of your choice that will use them for scientic research. Google BOINC and check out what is available.


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## Tom (Oct 1, 2012)

Whipple said:


> I can see many uses for this technology.
> Next generation of protable hand-held gaming devices?
> The basis for the next iteration of the K101 Revo with enhanced emulation?
> 
> ...


dual core a9 then 16 other epiphany cores


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## chyyran (Oct 1, 2012)

But can it run Crysis?


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## jrk190 (Oct 1, 2012)

With this technology, you could probably build a tablet or laptop with Thrice the specs of any $500 PC build, for a fraction of the cost... Well, maybe.


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## Tom (Oct 1, 2012)

jrk190 said:


> With this technology, you could probably build a tablet or laptop with Thrice the specs of any $500 PC build, for a fraction of the cost... Well, maybe.


I was thinking of putting it in my old laptop casing


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## Flame (Oct 1, 2012)

Isn't this in the wrong section?


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## Whipple (Oct 1, 2012)

DiscostewSM said:


> Having a potential of 45Ghz is only relevant if all the cores get utilized fully. How many programs nowadays fully use more than 2-3 cores at any given time? If there are 64 cores, and programs used only 2 cores at any given time, you'd fully utilize the hardware if you had 32 separate programs running. How many people run that many programs at any given time?



I find that over time one tends to find was to utilize available computer resources. Increased stability and interconnectivity allows one to have many more programs running in the background utilizing the capabilities of your system to benefit you. Having email, fax, weather gadgets, real time monitoring and trend tracking analysis all use resources. The advent of more 64 bit software allows on to access a much greater memory map than the older 32 bit software.

These are great times to have a personal system. We have come a long ways in the last few years.


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## Gahars (Oct 1, 2012)

When everyone's computer is a supercomputer... none of them will be.


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## Bladexdsl (Oct 1, 2012)

yeah nice cpu BUT does it come with a gtx 580 if not that it's worthless 

does it even have a vid card?!


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## Deleted_171835 (Oct 1, 2012)

Bladexdsl said:


> yeah nice cpu BUT does it come with a gtx 580 if not that it's worthless


I'm sure fitting a GTX 580 into a 3.4" x 2.1" computer is completely feasible. Yes, yes.


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## Bladexdsl (Oct 1, 2012)

soulx said:


> Bladexdsl said:
> 
> 
> > yeah nice cpu BUT does it come with a gtx 580 if not that it's worthless
> ...


yeah if they do it this way


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## narutofan777 (Oct 2, 2012)

So I guess you can't play games on this?


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## ferofax (Oct 2, 2012)

431unknown said:


> TwinRetro said:
> 
> 
> > Okay, but what is the purpose of this hardware?
> ...


Oh, golden heavenly love! You shine so bright, my eyes bleed out!


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## Santee (Oct 2, 2012)

Looks like the "computers" that are just smartphone parts, but have standard ports.


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## Quietlyawesome94 (Oct 2, 2012)

narutofan777 said:


> So I guess you can't play games on this?



Games like Skyrim and such? No. This is running on CPUs with the ARM architecture. Most games are designed with Microsoft directX and X86 in mind.


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## RupeeClock (Oct 2, 2012)

A shitload of cores doesn't mean a shitload of power, and it sure as hell won't be true 45Ghz.
You don't just add up individual cores, more than that software has to be tailored to utilise multiple cores, and few do unless they are specialist software such as render farms.
Let's divide that 45Ghz figure by the 64 core figure they gave, *gasp*, that's just 700Mhz per core!
Now suppose you have software that only utilises four cores at best, it'll get 2.8Ghz of performance out of that.
This is as opposed to a regular Quadcore processor rated at 2.8Ghz, which if all four cores were utilised could operate at something akin to 11.2Ghz.

Actually Ghz isn't even a reliable way to tell the processing speed of a processor. It's merely the clock speed, it takes well designed architecture that minimizes every possible transmission to get the fastest calculations. For how cheap these processors are made out to be, I have serious doubts you will accomplish much of anything with these.

It's too good to be true, you'll probably get what's advertised but it will likely fall far beneath your expectations. You'll probably be better off grabbing a Raspberry Pi.


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## Janthran (Oct 2, 2012)

Quietlyawesome94 said:


> narutofan777 said:
> 
> 
> > So I guess you can't play games on this?
> ...


What if I have a Linux version of a game?


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## exangel (Oct 2, 2012)

Janthran said:


> Quietlyawesome94 said:
> 
> 
> > narutofan777 said:
> ...


There are ARM ports of Linux.  (edit: Obviously it comes with Ubuntu.. but there are other distros as well that will presumably work..)


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## RupeeClock (Oct 2, 2012)

exangel said:


> Janthran said:
> 
> 
> > Quietlyawesome94 said:
> ...


Isn't Raspberry Pi already a rather nice ARM processor board, with SD card and USB slots?

This project seems to be LIKE that, but geared towards being able to process tons of applications at once, or maybe one or two applications utilising a ton of cores.

Also I was thinking about x86/64 processors with those figures earlier. A theoretical 45Ghz on ARM processors is FAR more significant than on x86/x64 processors.


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## tueidj (Oct 2, 2012)

The Raspberry Pi's CPU is out of date and doesn't even have an FPU (there are much nicer ARM boards, you just need to look). A dual-core Cortex A9 would outperform it by 10x, even without the 16-core Epiphany accelerator.


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## Thanatos Telos (Oct 2, 2012)

Punyman said:


> But can it run Crysis?


The correct question is: Will it blend?


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## notmeanymore (Oct 2, 2012)

Why does it feel like half of these posts are recycled from this thread?

Get some new material, folks.

That aside, I'd be interested to see how good this device would be at Bitcoin mining.


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## Ericthegreat (Oct 2, 2012)

Interesting, but if I can't have a good gpu then I see no use....


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## Qtis (Oct 2, 2012)

Do people understand that this project is more about an affordable dev platform than anything else? Just like the Raspberry Pi, it will not be the top of the notch in x86 gaming, but it'll be something else. Sure it could be used, but as many have said, it's ARM based. It's not as easy as it sounds. On the other hand, it could be used as a remote desktop mirroring device à la AppleTV + Airplay. Just like the Pi (I'll be setting it up for Airplay + remote backups).

Hopefully this becomes something. Faster than the Pi, but for a higher price


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## Rydian (Oct 2, 2012)

Qtis said:


> but it'll be something else.


The question is... what?


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## Issac (Oct 2, 2012)

I find this interesting, and would like to try it out to compute brown number pairs, digits of pi, fractals and other mathematical fun stuff (where high precision and calculation speed is wanted).


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## Tom (Oct 2, 2012)

TehSkull said:


> Why does it feel like half of these posts are recycled from this thread?
> 
> Get some new material, folks.
> 
> That aside, I'd be interested to see how good this device would be at Bitcoin mining.


that was sorta my plan


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## Lanlan (Oct 2, 2012)

Ericthegreat said:


> Interesting, but if I can't have a good gpu then I see no use....


Software emulation?


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## Mantis41 (Oct 2, 2012)

Hmmm, Portable password hacker anyone? 

Reminds me of one of those movies. Agent plugs device into security panel and the code magically appears within a few seconds.


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## Fishaman P (Oct 2, 2012)

GHz =/= performance
GHZ * #ofCores =/= "Total" GHz

IMO, having a dual-core base with 16/64 weak CPUs on the side won't help much.  Any decent graphics card can beat that performance by a mile with GPGPU.


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## Tom (Oct 2, 2012)

... This isn't for gaming genuises


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## BORTZ (Oct 2, 2012)

I would have considered buying something like this a few years ago, but im not much for hobby computing any more.


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## Gahars (Oct 2, 2012)

tom10122 said:


> ... This isn't for gaming *genuis's*



Oh, the irony...


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## Tom (Oct 2, 2012)

Gahars said:


> tom10122 said:
> 
> 
> > ... This isn't for gaming *genuis's*
> ...


What are you talking about


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## Rydian (Oct 3, 2012)

tom10122 said:


> ... This isn't for gaming genuises





Fishaman P said:


> GPGPU.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPGPU


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