Replies to post #7317 on Intel Corp (INTC)

[chipguy]

ClearSpeed made a specialized floating point processor (Array Processor) which can be configured as a co-processor to x86 chips (presumably Xeon or Opteron).

Intel tried the same thing 14 years ago. It was called
the i860. Expect about as much success in the original
target market.

[Golfbum]

A number of companies have from time to time built array processors or coprocessors; most have disappeared. They never get sufficient standardization in their implementation to make it worth it for all but a few specialized applications. Standard software package companies are very leery of porting to such things considering the risky payback.

I suppose someone will go for one or two such machines if Clearspeed can convince them. I don't expect much more than that. Even then it will be for someone who has their own source code and lots of time [aka student slavelabor ;-) ] to do the porting and tuning.

Standard architectures have always won out eventually as they end up with nearly the same performance after all the overhead is factored in.

gb

[wbmw]

Sgolds, Re: ClearSpeed floating point processor - threat to Itanium?

Hardly. I spoke to Simon McIntosh-Smith for a while at the expo, and his vision for the chip is very different. I can see definite strengths, and fortunately for him, his chip came back from manufacturing only a week before MPF, so he was able to discuss some test results. The C++ programming tools are also noteworthy, since chips of this nature are often times hard to configure.

At any rate, he's not looking to compete with Intel, but rather to complement Intel hardware. He's actually a fan of Itanium architecture, and we had some interesting discussions with where Itanium may be going in the future. I'd like to see him successful, but it will depend on what kind of end user solutions he can successfully demonstrate. Let's face it - it's a niche product right now. The market does need the floating point performance he can deliver... but it's like having the hamburger meat without the buns.