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Subject: Re: Dual Core PPC970 in 2005 (OT)

Author: Anthony Cozzie

Date: 10:52:49 07/27/04

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On July 27, 2004 at 11:17:39, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On July 27, 2004 at 10:09:32, Derek Paquette wrote:
>
>>On July 27, 2004 at 04:32:36, Andreas Guettinger wrote:
>>
>>>IBM is working on a dual core version of the PPC970FX, the PPC970MP, which will
>>>be released somewhere in 2005, as they say.
>>>
>>>http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1627893,00.asp
>>>
>>>regards
>>>Andy
>>
>>What does this mean to really really really dumb people like me ? :)
>
>
>About 7-8 years ago when I did the parallel search for Crafty, many said "why?
>that will only apply to special-purpose machines and not mainstream computing."
>
>I replied that within a few years, _every_ machine will have two or more
>processors.  This is the beginning of that prophesy.  In another few years all
>programs will either be parallel or "loser". :)

Perhaps that is a bit extreme :)  There really aren't that many parallel
programs out there:

The Baron (dual only), Crafty, Diep, Fritz, Junior, Sjeng, Shredder, SOS, Zappa
(very little testing)

And I think that is it, although I may have missed one or two.  So even the most
generous estimate gives only 9-10, while a more conservative estimate would give
only 7.  From my experience, going parallel is pretty hard even when you _do_
have a dual machine (although very interesting, and in my opinion quite
rewarding: I think think parallelizing a chess program is one of the most
difficult programming tasks out there).

anthony



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