Hybrid-core computing
Encyclopedia
Hybrid-core computing is the technique of extending a commodity instruction set architecture (e.g. x86) with application-specific instructions to accelerate application performance. It is a form of heterogeneous computing
wherein asymmetric computational units coexist with a "commodity" processor.
Hybrid-core processing differs from general heterogeneous computing in that the computational units share a common logical address space, and an executable is composed of a single instruction stream—in essence a contemporary coprocessor
. The instruction set of a hybrid-core computing system contains instructions that can be dispatched either to the host instruction set or to the application-specific hardware.
Typically, hybrid-core computing is best deployed where the predominance of computational cycles are spent in a few identifiable kernels, as is often seen in high-performance computing
applications. Acceleration is especially pronounced when the kernel’s logic maps poorly to a sequence of commodity processor instructions, and/or maps well to the application-specific hardware.
Hybrid-core computing is used to accelerate applications beyond what is currently physically possible with off-the-shelf processors, or to lower power & cooling costs in a data center by reducing computational footprint. (i.e., to circumvent obstacles such as the power/density challenges faced with today's commodity processors).
A current example of hybrid-core computers is Convey Computer
Corporation's HC-1, which has both an Intel x86 processor and a Xilinx
FPGA coprocessor.
Heterogeneous computing
Heterogeneous computing systems refer to electronic systems that use a variety of different types of computational units. A computational unit could be a general-purpose processor , a special-purpose processor Heterogeneous computing systems refer to electronic systems that use a variety of...
wherein asymmetric computational units coexist with a "commodity" processor.
Hybrid-core processing differs from general heterogeneous computing in that the computational units share a common logical address space, and an executable is composed of a single instruction stream—in essence a contemporary coprocessor
Coprocessor
A coprocessor is a computer processor used to supplement the functions of the primary processor . Operations performed by the coprocessor may be floating point arithmetic, graphics, signal processing, string processing, or encryption. By offloading processor-intensive tasks from the main processor,...
. The instruction set of a hybrid-core computing system contains instructions that can be dispatched either to the host instruction set or to the application-specific hardware.
Typically, hybrid-core computing is best deployed where the predominance of computational cycles are spent in a few identifiable kernels, as is often seen in high-performance computing
High-performance computing
High-performance computing uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are counted as HPC-computers.-Overview:...
applications. Acceleration is especially pronounced when the kernel’s logic maps poorly to a sequence of commodity processor instructions, and/or maps well to the application-specific hardware.
Hybrid-core computing is used to accelerate applications beyond what is currently physically possible with off-the-shelf processors, or to lower power & cooling costs in a data center by reducing computational footprint. (i.e., to circumvent obstacles such as the power/density challenges faced with today's commodity processors).
A current example of hybrid-core computers is Convey Computer
Convey Computer
Convey Computer Corporation is a privately owned company, established in December 2006 and is based in Richardson, Texas. Convey has developed a specific form of heterogeneous computing they call hybrid-core computing...
Corporation's HC-1, which has both an Intel x86 processor and a Xilinx
Xilinx
Xilinx, Inc. is a supplier of programmable logic devices. It is known for inventing the field programmable gate array and as the first semiconductor company with a fabless manufacturing model....
FPGA coprocessor.