CPU/Hardware optimized for Erlang

[Thomas Lindgren]

--- James Hague <james.hague@REDACTED> wrote:

> Thomas Lindgren wrote:

> Good points.  I had forgotten about the ECOMP
> numbers being relative to JAM.

Hrrm, yes ... Well, er :-)

> >As someone whose name I can't remember liked to ask
> in
> >situations like this, "what has changed?" Why is it
> >going to be different this time?
> 
> Three things:
> [no clock speed increase => more work/instr good]
> [power concerns]

How should the complex instructions be implemented?
Longer pipelines? Slower clock + more work per stage?
More internal parallelism?

I'd say the main use for a complex instruction is that
it is a compact representation of "some work", in
particular in memory/cache. While actually executing,
resource requirements for any given instruction can
vary widely. (Cue that infamous VAX instruction.)

> [FPGAs]

FPGAs are very interesting, definitely. I think the
manufacturers now offer simple migration paths from
FPGA to ASIC too, if you find you have a winner.

Best,
Thomas



		
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