Absalom
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2007
- Messages
- 1,266
You might want to look into POWER by IBM. It's pretty EPIC and designed completely around parallelization. It supports up to 8 way SMT and is user configurable for different thread counts based on workload.
I see what you did there
The same could be said for Sun UltraSparc T1 and, to a lesser extent, the DEC Alpha EV8. Technically, the STI CELL used in the Sony PS3 could issue up to 1+8 threads simultaneous, although one could argue that those 8 SPE threads aren't true workhorse threads.
Microprocessors designed from the ground up with threading in mind isn't a new concept. You can find over 20 years of recent yet relevant history there. Even Intel tried to bring something to the table with Itanium.
I, for one, do not want to see x86 go. You've got 30+ years of compiler technology that shouldn't be carelessly tossed just because someone comes up with a more clever ISA.