Why do GPU's dwarf the computational power of CPU's?

[FishmanGeertz]

Although I'm not entirely sure I understand everything that was said there, damn does it sound cool.

I have a question though, how would the AT1000 made out of 35billion circa 1975 GPU's stack up against something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianhe-1A

It is becoming very difficult for electronic engineers to significantly increase the performance and efficiency of microprocessors. The next step for PC hardware is 28nm chips. Moore's law might become utterly obsolete at around 11nm.

That's when they will have to really put their heads together and think of something revolutionary if they want to keep making faster and faster hardware. There are some ideas on the slate, but most of them are purely theoretical/experimental.

 

[Eimacman]

KrisOhn:

I had a reply that I tried to enter day-before-yesterday but there was a glitch and the post was lost.

However the gist was this:

The AT1000 and its associated GPUs contain adaptive electronics, much more sophisticated than GPUs of the day, each GPU can be configured electronically by arrays similar to PEELs (Programmable Electrically Erasable Logic). I figure that the Tianhe-1A may just be adequate to load the P7E BIOS into the AT1000 Unit. My original estimation on the loading and compilation of the P7E BIOS using CRAY computers circa 1990 was about 3.38 years computertime. My estimation is the Tianhe-1A might take about 6 or more days.

FishmanGeertz:

I believe that the upper limit to computer clocking speed is the EM effects beyond 10GHz, it might be necessary to couple devices with waveguides. Imagine using X-rays to clock a computer circuit, very very difficult, not necessarily imposable.

As for the heating problem, immersion of the chip in a suitable non-polar refrigerant coupled to a suitable heat sink as part of the chip carrier should solve the heating problem. Liquid coolant allows for the maximum junction heat transfer over the entire surface of the device and not just through the substrate of the device.

 

[FishmanGeertz]

KrisOhn:

I had a reply that I tried to enter day-before-yesterday but there was a glitch and the post was lost.

However the gist was this:

The AT1000 and its associated GPUs contain adaptive electronics, much more sophisticated than GPUs of the day, each GPU can be configured electronically by arrays similar to PEELs (Programmable Electrically Erasable Logic). I figure that the Tianhe-1A may just be adequate to load the P7E BIOS into the AT1000 Unit. My original estimation on the loading and compilation of the P7E BIOS using CRAY computers circa 1990 was about 3.38 years computertime. My estimation is the Tianhe-1A might take about 6 or more days.

FishmanGeertz:

I believe that the upper limit to computer clocking speed is the EM effects beyond 10GHz, it might be necessary to couple devices with waveguides. Imagine using X-rays to clock a computer circuit, very very difficult, not necessarily imposable.

As for the heating problem, immersion of the chip in a suitable non-polar refrigerant coupled to a suitable heat sink as part of the chip carrier should solve the heating problem. Liquid coolant allows for the maximum junction heat transfer over the entire surface of the device and not just through the substrate of the device.

Do you think we'll ever see EXAFLOP processors in home computers?

 

[jhae2.718]

Do you think we'll ever see EXAFLOP processors in home computers?

You might, but your computer still won't be able to play the latest games.

 

[FishmanGeertz]

You might, but your computer still won't be able to play the latest games.

An EXAFLOP GPU would absolutely butcher Crysis. 2560x1600, x32MSAA, everything else set to max, on six monitors, and you would still get over 100 FPS! I'm not sure about how it would perform in 2030-2035 PC games.