Observation on Parallelism -- Burton Smith
Observation on Parallelism -- Burton Smith
- Observation on Parallelism
- Consider what level of parallelism will be required for the proposed superconducting system:
- It will have 1024 processors, each with a clock frequency that is some 4000 times faster than the operational speed of DRAM main memory.
- For main memory intensive applications, at least 4000 threads, such as a 4000-long vector of data, must be streaming through each CPU.
- This means that the minimum level of parallelism required is 1024 x 4000 = 4 million.
- Conclusion: One of the key advantages of a superconducting system will not be met unless large amounts of superconducting memory is included in the system, enough so that the fetches to main memory are relatively infrequent.
Notes:
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