Researchers working in areas spanning computer architecture, programming languages, operating systems, algorithms, and more have been thinking harder about the problem of parallel computing. Why has the age-old concept of parallelism become so “hot” today? Here is an article by David Patterson, Professor in Computer Science at UC Berkeley, giving his thoughts, and the rationale for increased government funding to solve the multicore challenge.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the article.

Computer architects were forced to find a new paradigm to sustain ever-increasing performance. The industry decided that only viable option was to replace the single power-inefficient processor by several more efficient processors on the same chip. The whole microprocessor industry thus declared that its future was in parallel computing, with a doubling of the number of processors or cores each technology generation, which occur every two years. This style of chip was labeled a multicore microprocessor. Hence, the leap to multicore is not based on a breakthrough in programming or architecture; it’s actually a retreat from the even harder task of building power-efficient, high-clock-rate, single-core chips.

Many startups tried commercializing multiple core hardware over the years. They all failed, as programmers accustomed to continuous improvements in sequential performance saw little need to explore parallelism. Convex, Encore, Floating Point Systems, INMOS, Kendall Square Research, MasPar, nCUBE, Sequent, and Thinking Machines are just the best-known members of the Dead Parallel Computer Society, whose ranks are legion. Given this sad history, there is plenty of reason for pessimism about the future of multicore.

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