Monarch system-on-a-chip excels in early testing

http://www.physorg.com/news93871254.html

Monarch system-on-a-chip excels in early testing

MONARCH system changes to address different computing challenges. Credit:
USC Information Sciences Institute

A revolutionary processor package that changes its architecture to adapt to
the demands of different computing tasks more than met design expectations
in recent trials.

Near-term applications for the MONARCH (Morphable Networked
Micro-Architecture) system designed by the USC Information Sciences
Institute and Raytheon include space radar and video processing, which
require small size and low power.

Raytheon also is investigating high-end commercial applications such as use
in smart cars and highways and in medical imaging, as well as exploring a
method for countering GPS jamming for the military.

Technical specifications of MONARCH system. Credit: USC Information
Sciences Institute
During Phases I and II of the program, an ISI group headed by John Granacki
developed the MONARCH architecture, working with the Advanced Concepts and
Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems on a contract from
DARPA.

Granacki is director of the Advanced Systems Division at ISI, and Research
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Systems and Biomedical
Engineering in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

"What we have been creating is essentially a supercomputer on a chip," he
said, "and not just a supercomputer, but a flexible supercomputer
reconfigures itself into the optimal supercomputer for each specific part of
a multi-part task."

This flexibility means MONARCH allows a significant reduction of the amount
of hardware (and therefore power) required for computing systems, while
still achieving extremely high (teraflop) throughput. Because of the memory
integrated on the chip, very small systems may be implemented with only a
single MONARCH device.

For larger implementations, hardware demand is further reduced by MONARCH's
ability to "morph" devices to so they can perform downstream tasks instead
of sitting idle while waiting for fresh input

The MONARCH chip may also serve as a system building block, allowing systems
of different sizes to be based on arrays of devices. Each device has
input/output ports to enable seamless data movement among multiple chips.
The device has two off-chip memory interfaces for large problems. Finally,
every chip is equipped with two RapidIO interfaces for connecting to
industry-standard equipment.

According to Granacki, MONARCH's polymorphic capability and super efficiency
enable the development of DoD systems that need very small size, low power,
and in some cases (particularly systems to be used in space) radiation
tolerance.

"Typically, a chip is optimally designed either for front-end signal
processing or back-end control and data processing," explained Nick Uros,
vice president for the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon
Space and Airborne Systems.

"The MONARCH micro-architecture is unique in its ability to reconfigure
itself to optimize processing on the fly. MONARCH provides exceptional
compute capacity and highly flexible data bandwidth capability with beyond
state-of-the- art power efficiency, and it's fully programmable."

In preliminary tests in the Phase III evaluation, a prototype system
consisting of just one of the new devices, provided sustained throughput of
64 gigaflops (floating point operations per second) with more than 60
gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per
second of off-chip data bandwidth.

In addition to the ability to adapt its architecture for a particular
objective, the MONARCH computer is also believed to be the most power-
efficient processor available. "MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core
Xeon chip by a factor of 10," said Michael Vahey, Raytheon's principal
investigator for the company's MONARCH technology.

Source: University of Southern California

--

Ken

"Buddhism elucidates why we are sentient."
"Buddhism follows thought throughout the Universe."
"Karma means that you don't get away with anything."

	#1
Ken Kubos	Monarch system-on-a-chip excels in early testing - contract from DARPA. http://www.physorg.com/news93871254.html Monarch system-on-a-chip excels in early testing MONARCH system changes to address different computing challenges. Credit: USC Information Sciences Institute A revolutionary processor package that changes its architecture to adapt to the demands of different computing tasks more than met design expectations in recent trials. Near-term applications for the MONARCH (Morphable Networked Micro-Architecture) system designed by the USC Information Sciences Institute and Raytheon include space radar and video processing, which require small size and low power. Raytheon also is investigating high-end commercial applications such as use in smart cars and highways and in medical imaging, as well as exploring a method for countering GPS jamming for the military. Technical specifications of MONARCH system. Credit: USC Information Sciences Institute During Phases I and II of the program, an ISI group headed by John Granacki developed the MONARCH architecture, working with the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems on a contract from DARPA. Granacki is director of the Advanced Systems Division at ISI, and Research Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Systems and Biomedical Engineering in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. "What we have been creating is essentially a supercomputer on a chip," he said, "and not just a supercomputer, but a flexible supercomputer reconfigures itself into the optimal supercomputer for each specific part of a multi-part task." This flexibility means MONARCH allows a significant reduction of the amount of hardware (and therefore power) required for computing systems, while still achieving extremely high (teraflop) throughput. Because of the memory integrated on the chip, very small systems may be implemented with only a single MONARCH device. For larger implementations, hardware demand is further reduced by MONARCH's ability to "morph" devices to so they can perform downstream tasks instead of sitting idle while waiting for fresh input The MONARCH chip may also serve as a system building block, allowing systems of different sizes to be based on arrays of devices. Each device has input/output ports to enable seamless data movement among multiple chips. The device has two off-chip memory interfaces for large problems. Finally, every chip is equipped with two RapidIO interfaces for connecting to industry-standard equipment. According to Granacki, MONARCH's polymorphic capability and super efficiency enable the development of DoD systems that need very small size, low power, and in some cases (particularly systems to be used in space) radiation tolerance. "Typically, a chip is optimally designed either for front-end signal processing or back-end control and data processing," explained Nick Uros, vice president for the Advanced Concepts and Technology group of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. "The MONARCH micro-architecture is unique in its ability to reconfigure itself to optimize processing on the fly. MONARCH provides exceptional compute capacity and highly flexible data bandwidth capability with beyond state-of-the- art power efficiency, and it's fully programmable." In preliminary tests in the Phase III evaluation, a prototype system consisting of just one of the new devices, provided sustained throughput of 64 gigaflops (floating point operations per second) with more than 60 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth and more than 43 gigabytes per second of off-chip data bandwidth. In addition to the ability to adapt its architecture for a particular objective, the MONARCH computer is also believed to be the most power- efficient processor available. "MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10," said Michael Vahey, Raytheon's principal investigator for the company's MONARCH technology. Source: University of Southern California -- Ken "Buddhism elucidates why we are sentient." "Buddhism follows thought throughout the Universe." "Karma means that you don't get away with anything."