Re: [oc] think different (was: Beyond Transmeta...)

["Marko Mlinar" <Marko.Mlinar@campus.fri.uni-lj.si>]

> Marko Mlinar wrote:
> > I noticed you have quite a overwiew in this field, but I somehow
> > disagree with you. I think that code should be written in C/C++
> > or Java, but then somehow converted to parallel languages.
> > I know this cannot be done by any currently used algorithms,
> > but I am working on it :) I've already found some formal decisions
> > you can make in certain cases to achieve parallity in (relatively) non-
> > parallel programs.
> 
> At least with Java you have a standard thread system which encourages
> you to include large grain parallelism in your programs.
> 
> The problem with C/C++ (or X86 binaries) is that they are too low
> level. You have transformed the programmer's high level specifications
> (where most of the parallelism is) into low level pointer manipulations
> and scalar data transfers. To get more than a small amount of fine
> grain parallelism (instruction level parallelism: ILP) you will have to
> extract some higher level data flow representation from the code. I
> feel you can get better results if you don't throw away the high level
> information in the first place.
Yes, Java is far more useful language just because it is more specific
(higher) language...
But I found out that you can find some parallelism even in C. And if
you set (reasonable) limit, that programs doesn't cause out of array
or structure pointers, you can conclude many things.

> My interest is basically this: will the Open Core cpus be able to
> decompress MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video? One way to do this would be to have
> a decoder core which is simply added to a design when needed. It would
> fit this group's current organization very well and is how nearly all
> video capable products now in the market were designed. The problem is
> that the core can't adapt as standards evolve and it doesn't help other
> applications at all (it just sits there wasting silicon when you are
> simulating a spaceship, for example).
> 
> So a core that can parallelize and accelerate math intensive code in
> general *and* decode MPEG as well would be a very valuable thing to
> have.
or2k would be very suitable for this. Or2k project was kinda abandoned
because arhitecture is too difenent and 2.5Dhrystones/MIPS doesn't
balance that for desktop computer. I really think having or2k matrix 4x4
and maybe or1k to program it, would be perfect solution for video.
AFAIK there is no better processor for lo-res video aplications like you
mentioned (and still being special purpose).

regards,
    Marko