Parallella: A Supercomputer for Everyone (Ending Saturday Oct 27, 6:00pm EDT)

[nlovlyn]

This is a project on kickstarter that will be ending on Saturday Oct 27, 6:00pm EDT.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adapteva/parallella-a-supercomputer-for-everyone

Project Goals

Making parallel computing easy to use has been described as "a problem as hard as any that computer science has faced". With such a big challenge ahead, we need to make sure that every programmer has access to cheap and open parallel hardware and development tools. Inspired by great hardware communities like Raspberry Pi and Arduino, we see a critical need for a truly open, high-performance computing platform that will close the knowledge gap in parallel programing. The goal of the Parallella project is to democratize access to parallel computing. If we can pull this off, who knows what kind of breakthrough applications could arise?  Maybe some of them will even change the world in some small but positive way.

The Parallella Computing Platform

To make parallel computing ubiquitous, developers need access to a platform that is affordable, open, and easy to use. The goal of the Parallella project is to provide such a platform! The Parallella platform will be built on the following principles:

Open Access: Absolutely no NDAs or special access needed! All architecture and SDK documents will be published on the web as soon as the Kickstarter project is funded.
Open Source: The Parallella platform will be based on free open source development tools and libraries. All board design files will be provided as open source once the Parallella boards are released.
Affordability: Hardware costs and SDK costs have always been a huge barrier to entry for developers looking to develop high performance applications. Our goal is to bring the Parallella high performance computer cost below $100, making it an affordable platform for all.
The Parallella platform is based on the Epiphany multicore chips developed by Adapteva over the last 4 years and field tested since May 2011. The Epiphany chips consists of a scalable array of simple RISC processors programmable in C/C++ connected together with a fast on chip network within a single shared memory architecture.

The Team Behind Parallella

The Parallella project is being launched by Adapteva, a semiconductor startup company founded in 2008. The core development team consists of Andreas Olofsson, Roman Trogan, and Yaniv Sapir, each with between 10 and 20 years of industry experience. The team has a strong reputation of executing on aggressive goals on a shoestring budget. Our latest Epiphany-IV processor was designed in a leading edge 28nm process and started sampling in July, demonstrating 50 GFLOPS/Watt.  To put this in perspective, consider that the Epiphany energy efficiency specs are within striking distance of the 2018 goals set by DARPA for the high profile Exascale supercomputing project.

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[regular]

but will it mine?

[nlovlyn]

but will it mine?

It runs Ubuntu, so I have to assume that it will mine. The 64-core version of the Parallella computer would deliver over 90 GFLOPS of performance and would have the the horse power comparable to a theoretical 45 GHz CPU [64 CPU cores * 700MHz] on a board the size of a credit card while consuming only 5 Watts under typical work loads. For certain applications, this would provide raw performance than a high end server costing thousands of dollars and consuming 400W. You don't have anything to loose for only $100 for the 16 core board.

[Zeek_W]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=115021.msg1273871#msg1273871

[nlovlyn]

Ok, so it won't mine. But it could handle running a mining rig.

[tgmarks]

I think this may be a little overkill for just running a mining rig.

[quasarbtc]

I think they would have done much better with their fund raising had they marketed it as a super RPi, but actually provided a few examples of every day software that struggles on RPi, but is usable with the add-on parallel processors.

[senseless]

If each core has more than enough memory you could use it for scrypt. 128.1Kb is what I was reading is necessary in other threads. Maybe in the next generation?

[nlovlyn]

We have 30 hours left to reach the goal of $750,000. If we do not then the project will NOT be funded at all. Even though it can't mine, it's only $99 and way more powerful than a normal PC. Please dig deep and support this project!

[pieppiep]

We have 30 hours left to reach the goal of $750,000. If we do not then the project will NOT be funded at all. Even though it can't mine, it's only $99 and way more powerful than a normal PC. Please dig deep and support this project!

A single threaded application is still much faster on a normal pc compared to this 'supercomputer'.
A 'very much the same threads'-application is still much faster on a videocard compared to this 'supercomputer'.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of 64 cores on 1 chip, but I skip this one.

[cheebydi]

We have 30 hours left to reach the goal of $750,000. If we do not then the project will NOT be funded at all. Even though it can't mine, it's only $99 and way more powerful than a normal PC. Please dig deep and support this project!

Tell me what I can do with it as an every day kinda guy with a bit more knowledge than average about computers and I'm happy to get one.

[SgtSpike]

It's pretty amazing how close they are to their goal though...

[ElectricMucus]

It's pretty amazing how close they are to their goal though...

Sadly the 64 core version needs 3mil.

I already have one of these though: http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products_csp&id=532
Might not beat the 64core version (it actually has 144 cores but only 33 instructions and 64word ram, only 180nm production) but still it's an existing product.

[senseless]

It's pretty amazing how close they are to their goal though...

Sadly the 64 core version needs 3mil.

I already have one of these though: http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products_csp&id=532
Might not beat the 64core version (it actually has 144 cores but only 33 instructions and 64word ram, only 180nm production) but still it's an existing product.

You can get the 64 core demo board for 750$ pledge, 2 boards for a 1500$ pledge. But the 199$ pledge only gets the 4th gen chip if the 3M goal is reached.

They're raising money for the 64 core version, but the current existing epiphany 3 chip is available for 99$ on pledge.

Btw, they hit their 750K goal.

I got one of the Ep3 boards just to play with their SDK. But this doesn't even really get interesting until you start talking 1000s of cores per chip. Maybe in 2014.

[ElectricMucus]

It's pretty amazing how close they are to their goal though...

Sadly the 64 core version needs 3mil.

I already have one of these though: http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products_csp&id=532
Might not beat the 64core version (it actually has 144 cores but only 33 instructions and 64word ram, only 180nm production) but still it's an existing product.

You can get the 64 core demo board for 750$ pledge, 2 boards for a 1500$ pledge. But the 199$ pledge only gets the 4th gen chip if the 3M goal is reached.

They're raising money for the 64 core version, but the current existing epiphany 3 chip is available for 99$ on pledge.

Btw, they hit their 750K goal.

I got one of the Ep3 boards just to play with their SDK. But this doesn't even really get interesting until you start talking 1000s of cores per chip. Maybe in 2014.

It's tempting, although the question for me is what will the chips costs when purchased alone, or if they are even available in small on stock quantities. For the chip I have I can order them in 10 packs 200USD each.
From the looks of it that option will not be available for these guys.

[gurki]

Looks like they made it.