Friday, June 29, 2007

75 MHz vs 2.66 GHz

This may seem as dumb question but people from Maryland Institute of Technology don't think so. Professor Uzi Vishkin and his team have developed a prototype of desktop computer using 75 MHz processors, 64 of them and it is big as a license plate.

The key is in the parallel processing. This idea is not new and Vishkin has been working on this since 1979. As he points out in the press release hardware is not the main problem, it is software that makes it hard. So they have written their own software to take the full advantage of this system.

Why this may be a challenge for other CPU and computer manufacturers? It shows you don't have to have 4 GHz or 1 THz CPU to get the job done very quickly. It is never a single side solution, like increase in CPU clock. Without software any computer is good for junkyard or shooting practice.

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