After single, dual, quadra, octa – Meet 1,000 core ultra-fast processor

After single core processors of yester years, dual core processors are in vogue right now; with quadra, octa and even 16 cores processors presenting a glimpse of the future.

But imagine what a computer will perform like, if it runs on more than 1000 core processor that too discreetly programmed to perform fast.

Scientists have created an ultra-fast 1,000 core computer processor which could speed up machines and make them greener too, reports Associated Press.

Recent History of PC Processors:

Originally, computers were developed with only one core processor, the part of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) which reads and executes instructions. Nowadays processors with two, four or even 16 cores are commonplace. SO when you say dual core processor, you mean your processor has two processing circuits on a single processor.

How Scientists make space for 1000 plus cores:

Created by , Dr Wim Vanderbauwhede, of the University of Glasgow, and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the newly created processor effectively contains more than a thousand cores on a single chip. To accomplish this, the scientists used a chip called a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which like all microchips contains millions of transistors - the tiny on-off switches which are the foundation of any electronic circuit.

What makes the processor run fast:

FGPAs can be configured into specific circuits by the user, rather than their function being set at a factory, which enabled scientists to divide up the transistors within the chip into small groups and ask each to perform a different task. So delegation of tasks makes the processor fast. Right now the common practice with dual cores is to separate the graphics processing from the central processing, making the processor run fast. While most computers sold now contain more than one processing core, which allows them to carry out different processes simultaneously, traditional multi-core processors must share access to one memory source, which slows the system down. The research scientists were able to make the processor faster by giving each core a certain amount of dedicated memory.

What makes the processor is Greener than others:

Although FPGAs are not used within standard computers because they are fairly difficult to program but their processing power is huge. They are low on energy consumption too as they are so much quicker than their counterparts.

How Fast is the processor:

The researchers used the chip to process an algorithm which is central to the MPEG movie format (processing intensive activity)- used in YouTube videos - at a speed of five gigabytes per second, around 20 times faster than current top-end desktop computers. --------

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