From kragen@dnaco.net Tue Sep 29 12:15:30 1998 Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 12:15:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Kragen To: David Tillman cc: lispos@math.gatech.edu Subject: Re: a good volunteer In-Reply-To: <87k92nyol4.fsf@palantir.cannonexpress.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Status: O X-Status: On 29 Sep 1998, David Tillman wrote: > Mostly dead. I was originally pursuing a hardware platform > for the OS based on something not quite so brain-damaged as > Intel. Hopefully a multiprocessor Motorola based system, but > more likely something based on either the StrongArm or IDT > chips. > > The reality is that current PC platforms are too cheap to make > a custom solution worthwhile unless some real performance wins > can be demonstrated. I think that's why Symbolics keeps going bankrupt. (Not that Open Genera isn't worthwhile -- I haven't tried it.) > (Hey Kragen, how about a Beowulf-in-a-box running LispOS?) That's an interesting idea. Someone suggested turning the Beowulf-in-a-box into a ccNUMA system today. Then you could just run a multithreaded program and have it run across thirty CPUs. :) Ideally, what you'd want for a multiprocessor box would be some automatic, easy method of finding things that were possible to run in parallel and would benefit from running in parallel. There are some folks working on a 1-square-mm 1BIPS stack-based microprocessor called the F21; their 500MIPS version should be back from the fab in November. It has a built-in video card, sound card, network card, parallel port, and a real-time clock. Stack-based CPUs are probably better suited to running Lisp than register-based CPUs. Main trouble is that they've done three fab runs so far, and none of the results were working. The most recent one (from a year ago) couldn't write to DRAM and couldn't do subroutine calls and returns. The development company (www.itvcorp.com) has been able to do prototype chip runs each month, and they've got chips now that they can actually run things on. Their chips are called the 'i21', and they are closely related to the F21. (btw, the chip is being designed by the inventor of Forth.) Information on its status is at . Kragen -- Kragen Sitaker A well designed system must take people into account. . . . It's hard to build a system that provides strong authentication on top of systems that can be penetrated by knowing someone's mother's maiden name. -- Schneier