University researchers tout "desktop supercomputer" chip

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 6/25/2007

Researchers in the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering have developed a single-chip parallel processing technology they claim is capable of computing speeds 100 times faster than current desktops.

In a release issued today, Prof. Uzi Vishkin and his Clark School colleagues said they have developed a prototype that uses a circuit board about the size of a license plate on which they have mounted 64 parallel processors. To control those processors, the researchers said they have developed a crucial parallel computer organization that purportedly allows the processors to work together and enables simpler software design on the chip.

"Suppose you hire one person to clean your home, and it takes five hours, or 300 minutes, for the person to perform each task, one after the other," Vishkin said in a statement. "That's analogous to the current serial processing method. Now imagine that you have 100 cleaning people who can work on your home at the same time! That's the parallel processing method.

"The 'software' challenge is: Can you manage all the different tasks and workers so that the job is completed in 3 minutes instead of 300?" Vishkin added in the statement. "Our algorithms make that feasible for general-purpose computing tasks for the first time."

To increase awareness of the new technology, Vishkin is inviting the public to propose names for it. The name should reflect the features and new machine and its parallel computing capabilities, Vishkin said. The winner will receive a $500 cash prize and be credited with the naming of the innovative technology. Visitors can submit their ideas online at the Clark School of Engineering website, www.eng.umd.edu. The deadline for submissions is September 15.

Vishkin and his team said they are now demonstrating their technology to government and industry groups. Vishkin's research teams includes students Xingzhi Wen, Aydin Balkan, George Caragea, Mike Detwiler, Tom Dubois, Mike Horak, Fuat Keceli, Mary Kiemb and Alex Tzannes, as well as electrical and computer engineering professors Rajeev Barua and Gang Qu.