Re: Edge.org: Jaron Lanier

From: Perry E.Metzger (perry@piermont.com)
Date: Fri Nov 28 2003 - 15:55:27 MST


Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org> writes:
> On Wed, Nov 26, 2003 at 07:11:11PM -0500, Perry E.Metzger wrote:
>
>> Actually, most CPUs sold today do SIMD of various kinds for doing
>> multimedia work. There are a lot of easy parallel algorithms in things
>
> Most MMX does indeed *Single Instruction* on Multiple (64-128 bit
> registers, seen as array of 32, 16, 8-bit data types). It is a specific
> type of parallelism (not MIMD),

That's why it is called "SIMD".

>> The issue is the use of highly non-Von Neumann like architectures for
>> every day use. Generally speaking, we haven't found comfortable
>> programming models or applications for such beasts.
>
> I find this deeply disconcerting. Don't you?

Not really. Again, the universe is what it is. We might want things to
be otherwise, and we might even work towards changing things, but it
is silly not to accept the hand one is dealt. Perhaps someday radical
new programming techniques will be common -- and perhaps you will help
find them -- but until they show up, I'll have to live with what we
have.

Perry



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