CPU/Hardware optimized for Erlang

[James Hague]

On 7/21/05, Thomas Lindgren <thomasl_erlang@REDACTED> wrote:
> 
> I'm normally skeptical to special-purpose hardware for
> specific programming languages -- such chips have
> always gotten steamrollered by the killer micros.

In the past I would have agreed, but that was before the killer micro
manufacturers started running into hard limits.  Power consumption has
been increasing disproportionally with performance.  And now notebook
computers are outselling desktops, and that's where power consumption
is a big deal.

If an Erlang processor gave performance similar to BEAM on a 3GHz
Pentium 4, but used 1/10 the power, then that's a big deal.  (Though I
know it still wouldn't get used in notebooks, but maybe in some kind
of Palm or Blackberry-like device?)

James