Advanced flexible processor

AFP Performance Benefits. Comparisons between the performance of the Advanced Flexible Processor and other current super computers have been made on the image processing Change Detection Algorithm. The Advanced Flexible Processor has been determined to be approximately 2,000 times faster than a CDC 6600 on the Change Detection Algorithm, and to provide approximately 100 times the capability of the CDC 7600 computer. The Advanced Flexible Processor is found to perform 20 times faster than its predecessor, the Flexible Processor. 

The Advanced Flexible Processor is a unique and powerful architecture providing an extremely high degree of flexibility and cost-effectiveness. It consists of 16 relatively autonomous functional units interconnected by a power 16 x 18 port, crossbar interconnect. Each of the data paths interconnected by the crossbar is 16 bits wide Table 1 describes the functional unit breakdown of the Advanced Flexible Processor. A conceptualized functional organization of the AFP is shown in Figure 4. 

Figure 4. Functional organization of the advanced flexible processor.

Computations may be streamed through the Advanced Flexible Processor very efficiently due to dual I/O port characteristics of the internal architecture. Data elements may be independently streamed in and out of the Advanced Flexible Processor through any one or all of the four I/O channels. For example, data may be streamed in through one of the memory I/O channels, computations performed, and then streamed out through one of the other three I/O channels simultaneously. 

Multifunctional Parallelism. The internal architecture of the Advanced Flexible Processor allows multiple computational streams to be constructed and executed in parallel. By way of example, one might imagine the multiply unit requesting operands from one of the memory I/O ports and one of the data memories, while at the same time an adder may be requesting the product computed by the multiplier on a previous machine cycle and another data element from one of the remaining three data memories to serve as input operands for an addition operation. 

The machine cycle time of the Advanced Flexible Processor is 20 nanoseconds Every functional unit can provide results every 20 nanoseconds Thus, 50 million 16-bit multiplies, 200 million 16-bit data memory references, and 100 million 16-bit adds or subtracts, etc. can be performed every second The maximum operational speed of the Advanced Flexible Processor, therefore, is 800 million operations per second when all 16 functional units are executing. 

The external memory access unit provides the interface between the AFP and the central, high-performance, random access memory store. Each external memory access unit can provide peak data I/O rates of 3.2 billion bits per second and sustained I/O rates of 800 million bits per second. Thus, the total sustained capability of an Advanced Flexible Processor from the two ring port I/O units and the two external memory access units is 3.2 billion bits per second. 

AFP Computational Performance. The multiply unit of the Advanced Flexible Processor provides the capability to produce two 16-bit products or one 32-bit product every 20 nanosecond machine cycle. The multiplier also provides the capability to do population and significant counts. The two adders provide the capability of performing four 8-bit adds, two 16-bit adds, or one 32-bit add every 20 nanosecond machine cycle. The shift... 

System arrays of Advanced Flexible Processors are linked together and synchronized via facilities provided by the ring port functional units Data elements 16 bits wide, along with 12 bits of control information, are passed between ring ports on adjacent AFP s. The control information provides all of the associated addressing information to define the single processor or subset of system processors to which the message is to be sent ... 

MICA produces a binary file of the submitted program which runs directly on the Advanced Flexible Processor. 

The Advanced Flexible Processor is a unique entry into the multiprocessing field. It provides the dynamic capabilities offered by an MIMD machine with advanced features provided by the interprocessor ring communications network efficient utilization of the system processors is therefore effected. Within each Advanced Flexible Processor, dynamic multiple chaining can be achieved due to the superior flexibility of the... 

Special-purpose functional units can replace existing functional units within the Advanced Flexible Processor, allowing processor capabilities to be tailored to the precise application requirements. Modular system construction allows compute power modularity thus, processing systems can be cost-effectively tailored to the users individual requirements. 

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