INDUSTRY PERSEPCTIVES
"Parallel Computing" Sparks Software Revolution
SAN JOSE, CA (July 23, 2007) - According to a report in the Detroit News, a fundamental change in the design of microprocessors is presenting software developers with a challenge and a huge financial opportunity. In recent years, chip makers have shifted from racing to have the fastest microprocessor with a single, super-fast calculating core to layering multiple cores on the same chip to increase overall processing capacity more efficiently.
New FrontiersIntel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are making their latest microprocessors with two and four cores, with plans for more in the future. Intel has even demonstrated an 80-core research chip that is so complex that it doesn't have an operating system smart enough to work with it.
"People want to make decisions in real time -- they don't want to run some complex simulation overnight, they want to see the results then and there," says Jerry Bautista, director of technology management for Intel's Microprocessor Technology Lab. He added that multicore computers are ideal for applications there is a demand for high-performance technical computing - such as Wall Street (where there is a need for making complicated calculations quickly), facial and pattern recognition software, search programs for large databases combining both text and graphics, consumer electronics, seamless video streaming, smoother computer games with richer graphics, and others. Similar to the many layered cooling coils in a radiator, placing multiple cores on a single chip saves energy and reduces heat. The technology - known as "parallel computing" - runs slower but is more energy-efficient, and is able to break up big chores and work on the separate pieces simultaneously. The result is ideal for the most demanding multimedia and telemetric tasks, many of which are making their way into automobiles or the supply chains that serve the industry.
The problem is that many software applications weren't written for chips with multiple cores, and the hardware is advancing so fast that the software runs the risk of being left behind. Previously, as processors sped up, software developers tagged along by making their programs faster and faster. But now that chip makers are no longer focused solely on speed, programmers must change their tactics and learn to send instructions to different parts of several chips instead of through a single processing core.
The gap between hardware and software hasn't become a problem for consumers yet, because operating systems like Windows XP and Vista already work with the multicore chips out now, and basic applications like word processing and e-mail don't need the extra cores yet, or a software overhaul.
Experts, however, predict dire consequences without a software overhaul to handle more complicated, real-time applications - where the need to know now is imperative. They warn that programs could suddenly stop getting faster as chips with eight or more cores make their way into PCs. The software as it's currently designed can't take advantage of that level of complexity.
"It will take a lot of heavy lifting, a lot of rethinking, but the opportunity is huge," says Mark Lewin, program manager in External Research & Programs for Microsoft Research. Whoever solves this problem could have a gigantic competitive advantage on everybody else. With both industry and academia working on ways adapt to using vast pools of untapped processing power, Lewin says the solution will require more than inventing new programming languages, as developers need to invent entirely new ways to build software.
"The software industry would have been very happy if the processor industry could have been able to double performance every two years without having to go to this parallel world," said Marc Tremblay, chief technology officer for Sun Microsystems Inc.'s microelectronics business, where he oversees the server and software maker's processor roadmap. "Unfortunately people ran into roadblocks, and the winners will be the people who can actually leverage this disruption."
(Source: Detroit News)
