On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 23:49:27 +0100, you wrote:

>On 08/06/2011 23:13, Bob Blick wrote:
>> Back when the propeller came out, it was many times faster than the
>> fastest PIC, and since it had eight simple cores, loaded program from
>> eeprom into RAM, it was so different it didn't fit the microcontroller
>> model that we had gotten used to. If you look at the block diagram of
>> it, it's easy to imagine what you'd need to do to prototype it.
>>
>
>8 ARMs?
>
>In 1984 .. 1987 I was convinced the x86 was stupid. I still am.
>
>I spent some time with Occam and visiting people using Transputers.
>
>The PIC is basically 1970s design. The basic 16F is pretty horrible=20
>basic architecture really. But very flexible I/O mapping and easy Flash=20
>programming, so handy for loads of simple applications. People used=20
>i960s, ARM, MIP, Power PC, even x86 SOC for more powerful embedded=20
>applications. Industrial & Telecom systems, not just x86 shared i/o +RAM=20
>servers have used arrays of cpus each with RAM.
>
>Graphics cards are becoming more general purpose and can have hundreds=20
>of simple cpu cores.
>
>The Propeller is interesting. But without a LOT more RAM per core, it's=20
>fairly niche.  Same issue with x86 and ARM. both have 4 core versions=20
>and having more cores is largely pointless without dedicated program RAM=20
>and and I/O on each core, like Transputer.
>
>If the Transputer had been Intel or Samsung and Programmers ready to=20
>learn parallel orientated languages then today we would have 16 core=20
>Transputers with each having internal and external separate serial i/o=20
>and about 32M dedicated RAM per core on chip.
>
>I've thought many times about getting a Parallax Propeller chip, but I=20
>don't have the niche applications to really take advantage of it.

>From my cursory look, it seems like the XMOS chips use a not dissimilar co=
ncept, only somewhat
faster, and more on a par with FPGA's in terms of performance for those tas=
ks they are suited to.=20

--=20
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