Big, fast, and simple-algorithms, architecture, and components for high-end superminis
E. I. Gordon, C. Hastings · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 1982
Density increases in today's LSI have made possible high-speed integrated-circuit building blocks such as 8*8 cray multipliers and 16*16 matrix shifters, which offer functionality beyond that attainable at any reasonable cost in yesterday's computers. These newer parts incorporate massive internal parallelism, and yet feature short logic-delay times and volume-production prices. Presents cost/performance-effective design alternatives for conventional Von Neumann uniprocessors, based on the supercomputer design philosophy of big, fast, and simple which is attributed to Seymour Cray. The vehicle for presenting these alternatives is a preliminary design for a multi-MIPS 64-bit floating-point TTL supermini which incorporates arrays of 8*8 multipliers and 16*16 shifters, supported by other high-speed components such as alus, carry bypasses, priority encoders, pals, interface circuits, and fifos. 19 references.