Comments on: Why Parallel Matters http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/ Open Source, Open Standards Sat, 05 Oct 2013 13:48:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Annet http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-92083 Annet Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:09:08 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-92083 Thanks for giving us objective information, much appreciate this! <a href="http://friv.eu.com" rel="nofollow">Annet Mark</a> Thanks for giving us objective information, much appreciate this!
Annet Mark

]]> By: buggsy2 http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9093 buggsy2 Sun, 06 Mar 2011 22:05:21 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9093 A "graphic" demo of serial vs. parallel work: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1828443 A “graphic” demo of serial vs. parallel work:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1828443

]]> By: gregpfister http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9078 gregpfister Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:11:13 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9078 The drop you draw hasn't happened for servers. Instead, it just flattens out. I'm not sure why it wouldn't just flatten out for smaller devices, too, as long as battery life is adequate. But I agree, more cores each running slower (important) at lower voltage (important!) can give the same performance as a fast core, and do so at lower power -- assuming parallelized software, very good parallel scaling, etc. It's even a square law. That's the point I was making in my blog posts about the parallel power law (http://bit.ly/hgfAO9, http://bit.ly/fcpB6r). The drop you draw hasn’t happened for servers. Instead, it just flattens out. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t just flatten out for smaller devices, too, as long as battery life is adequate.

But I agree, more cores each running slower (important) at lower voltage (important!) can give the same performance as a fast core, and do so at lower power — assuming parallelized software, very good parallel scaling, etc. It’s even a square law. That’s the point I was making in my blog posts about the parallel power law (http://bit.ly/hgfAO9, http://bit.ly/fcpB6r).

]]> By: Damien Hocking http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9075 Damien Hocking Sat, 05 Mar 2011 04:05:53 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9075 Scaling memory bandwidth has always been a challenge, it might be always be. Even if that gets fixed we'll run into some other restriction. We always do that to, and that's the best thing that can happen. The market will drive the hardware and software like it always has. We rode gaming to high clock rates and GPU computing. AMD made 64-bit a commodity. Intel's SCC is a great step forward. It's a great time to be in the HPC industry. We've got more GHz and more GB today than we ever had, and it's only going up. It's awesome. Scaling memory bandwidth has always been a challenge, it might be always be. Even if that gets fixed we’ll run into some other restriction. We always do that to, and that’s the best thing that can happen. The market will drive the hardware and software like it always has. We rode gaming to high clock rates and GPU computing. AMD made 64-bit a commodity. Intel’s SCC is a great step forward. It’s a great time to be in the HPC industry. We’ve got more GHz and more GB today than we ever had, and it’s only going up. It’s awesome.

]]> By: wgodoy http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9073 wgodoy Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:10:39 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9073 I like using Java Threads, it gives more control to the programmer for the memory-shared parallelization than OpenMP. I like using Java Threads, it gives more control to the programmer for the memory-shared parallelization than OpenMP.

]]> By: Josh Fisher http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9072 Josh Fisher Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:59:32 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9072 Buggsy2, this is why Intel's SCC platform is so interesting. DRAM is subdivided by using multiple memory controllers. Additionally, on-chip photonics technology is posed to provide an optical bus that should increase bus frequencies into the THz range without increasing power or thermal envelope. Buggsy2, this is why Intel’s SCC platform is so interesting. DRAM is subdivided by using multiple memory controllers. Additionally, on-chip photonics technology is posed to provide an optical bus that should increase bus frequencies into the THz range without increasing power or thermal envelope.

]]> By: buggsy2 http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9067 buggsy2 Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:03:48 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9067 WRT SMP, what about bandwidth problems? That is lack of sufficient bandwidth for all the cores to share the common memory. This was discussed in the Scaling Bandwidth column, June 24th, 2009. WRT SMP, what about bandwidth problems? That is lack of sufficient bandwidth for all the cores to share the common memory. This was discussed in the Scaling Bandwidth column, June 24th, 2009.

]]> By: bobbydale http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9066 bobbydale Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:54:31 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9066 I predict at some point, my phone will replace my computer at home as the main computing and storage device in the household. At that point, I will only need a monitor, mouse, and keyboard to plug in to a docking station for my phone. I predict at some point, my phone will replace my computer at home as the main computing and storage device in the household. At that point, I will only need a monitor, mouse, and keyboard to plug in to a docking station for my phone.

]]> By: Damien Hocking http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9064 Damien Hocking Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:04:55 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9064 Doug, Outstanding. It's about time somebody collected power/core together into a simple, accessible article. Parallelism is the way forward. Welcome back SMP, we missed you... Doug,

Outstanding. It’s about time somebody collected power/core together into a simple, accessible article. Parallelism is the way forward. Welcome back SMP, we missed you…

]]> By: a-wolfe http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9063 a-wolfe Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:27:51 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9063 I enjoyed the article as well. Don't forget about threading as well. Though seemingly limited at the moment on x86 processors, could be utilized as well. Threading is a method that could conserves memory consumption. I enjoyed the article as well.

Don’t forget about threading as well. Though seemingly limited at the moment on x86 processors, could be utilized as well. Threading is a method that could conserves memory consumption.

]]> By: schandok http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8274/#comment-9062 schandok Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:35:45 +0000 http://www.linux-mag.com/?p=8274#comment-9062 Doug, Nice article. I agree that in future our personal laptop would have multi-cores in our laptop (,not surprisingly in our smartphones too). Not sure how much of s/w development is done w/ OpenMP, etc to maximize the use of all those cores. I feel with more cores the industry is really moving towards doing more of Virtualization. I think the push is even to do Virtualization on Smartphones/tablets. Doug, Nice article. I agree that in future our personal laptop would have multi-cores in our laptop (,not surprisingly in our smartphones too). Not sure how much of s/w development is done w/ OpenMP, etc to maximize the use of all those cores. I feel with more cores the industry is really moving towards doing more of Virtualization. I think the push is even to do Virtualization on Smartphones/tablets.

]]>