Greg Lindahl wrote:
On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 09:12:28AM -0500, Richard Walsh wrote:
2. Three tiered memory system with simple local memory (store,
like old Cray-2) that is user/software managed is preferable to
cache in the above context. Double buffering and prefetching to
local store reduce memory delays dramatically.
I wouldn't make this comparison. The Cray 2 local store was much
easier to use than Cell's software-managed memory. And almost no one
actually used the Cray 2 local store. Which ought to be a lesson
learned.
OK then perhaps, >>more like<< the Cray-2's local memory than like a
cache, and I used it (but I guess
that definitely qualifies as "almost no one" ... ;-) ...). Are you
wanting to imply that user controlled
chip-local storage is not that great a design feature for HPC
generally or more narrowly that the
CELL's implementation could be better?
Another example of a modern machine with software-managed local store
is QCDOC. Again, this is the easy-to-use kind, very unlike Cell.
-- greg
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--
Richard B. Walsh
Project Manager
Network Computing Services, Inc.
Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | 612.337.3467
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