Parallella: A Supercomputer For Everyone 64 cores in an 8x8 array for US$200

The Parallella project will make parallel computing accessible to everyone.

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  Launched:
  Sep 27, 2012
  
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  Funding ends:
  Oct 27, 2012
  
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  Remind Me
  

Project Goals

Making parallel computing easy to use
has been described as "a problem
as hard as any that computer science has faced". With such a big
challenge ahead, we need to make sure that every programmer has access
to cheap and open parallel hardware and development tools. Inspired by
great hardware communities like
Raspberry Pi and Arduino, we see a critical need for a truly open,
high-performance
computing platform that will close the knowledge gap in parallel
programing. The goal of the Parallella
project is to democratize access to parallel computing. If we can pull
this off, who knows what kind of breakthrough applications could arise.
Maybe some of them will even change the world in some small but
positive way.
The Parallella Computing Platform

To make parallel computing ubiquitous, developers need access to a platform that is affordable, open, and easy to use.
The goal of the Parallella project is to provide such a platform! The
Parallella platform will be built on the following principles:

• Open Access: Absolutely no NDAs or special access needed!
  All architecture and SDK documents will be published on the web as
  soon as the kickstarter project is funded.
  
• 
  Open Source: The Parallella platform will be based on free open
  source development tools and libraries. All board design files will be
  provided as open source once the Parallella boards are released.
  
• 
  Affordability: Hardware costs and SDK costs have always been a a
  huge barrier to entry for developers looking to develop high performance
  applications. Our goal is to bring the Parallella high performance
  computer cost below $100, making it an affordable platform for all.
  

The Parallella platform is based on the Epiphany multicore chips
developed by Adapteva over the last 4 years and field tested since May
2011. The Epiphany chips consists of a scalable array of simple RISC
processors programmable in C/C++ connected together with a fast on chip
network within a single shared memory architecture. Much more detailed
technical information about the Epiphany architecture can be found on Adapteva's web site.






Parallella Computer Specifications


The following list shows the major components planned for the Parallella computer:

• Dual-core ARM A9 CPU
  
• 
  Epiphany Multicore Accelerator (16 or 64 cores)
  
• 1GB RAM
  
• MicroSD Card
  
• USB 2.0 (two)
  
• Two general purpose expansion connectors
  
• Ethernet 10/100/1000
  
• HDMI connection
  
• Ships with Ubuntu OS
  
• Ships with free open source Epiphany development tools that include C
  compiler, multicore debugger, Eclipse IDE, OpenCL SDK/compiler, and run
  time libraries.
  
• Dimensions are 3.4'' x 2.1''
  

Once completed, the Parallella computer should deliver up to 45
GHz of
equivalent CPU performance on a board the size of a credit card while
consuming only 5 Watts under typical work loads. Counting GHz, this is
more horsepower than a high end server costing thousands of dollars and
consuming 400W.
The Team Behind Parallella

The Parallella
project is being launched by Adapteva, a semiconductor startup company founded in
2008. The core development team consists of Andreas Olofsson, Roman Trogan, and
Yaniv Sapir, each with between 10 and 20 years of industry experience. The team
has a strong reputation of executing on aggressive goals on a shoe string
budget. Our latest Epiphany-IV processor was designed in a leading edge 28nm
process and started sampling in July, demonstrating 50 GFLOPS/Watt. To
put this perspective, consider that the Epiphany energy efficiency specs are within
striking distance of the 2018 goals set by DARPA for the high profile Exascale supercomputing project.









Our passion is
to design hardware platforms that are powerful and easy to use. To us there is no bigger satisfaction than
seeing someone use our platform for a purpose that we could never have
imagined.




Some of the testimonials we received for our work on the Epiphany architecture:


"In the course of my travels around the world I have been fortunate
enough to meet some truly great engineers. However, it's rare that I am
completely blown away by someone on the engineering front. At least,
this was true until I was introduced to Andreas Olofsson, president and
architect of Adapteva Inc. As far as I am concerned, Andreas is "an engineer's engineer.", Clive Maxfield, EETimes
"Adapteva,
with its laser focus on floating point performance and with no
allegiance to either the x86 instruction set or graphics support, is
able to squeeze a lot more performance per watt out its design." Michael Feldman, HPCWire
“Visual computing can enable gesture-based gaming, advanced user
interfaces, augmented reality, and even improved health and safety.
Visual processing, however, requires many more flops than voice
processing. Adapteva’s architecture can deliver the performance required
for visual computing.” Linley Gwennap, Industry Analyst
"Andreas and his team have managed a rather fantastic feat: to
develop a genuinely useful microprocessor with many task-parallel cores,
operating within the power-budget of smart-phones and embedded devices.
Accomplishing all this with a team of only a few full-time employees
may seem unbelievable, but I’ve seen how he operates his company and the
magic is simple: Focus on the simplest solution to any given task, hire
a consultant when you need expert advice, and stick to all schedules!" Magnus Snorrason
The
Epiphany story has been well documented over the last year in the
press. The complete set of Epiphany online articles can be found here.



Where we are today

We feel great about the
status of our Epiphany chips, software development tools, and
prototyping boards. They have been thoroughly tested by early access
partners for the last year and we are already starting to see complete
applications being developed around our platform by others.
Most
of the impressive work done on the Epiphany platform is either published
as academic papers or hidden deep inside R&D labs, so we also
created our own demos for you to see what the platform can do. The
following video shows how our Epiphany-IV based EMEK4 prototype handily
beats an x86 based processor on a key mathematical kernel while
consuming a fraction of the power.





The following video shows Ubuntu running on a dual core ARM A9
reference platform that will serve as the starting point for the
Parallella computer. A daughter card containing 4 Epiphany based
processor chips can been seen sticking out from the right side of the
board.






Why we are asking for your help?

Since our first
Epiphany chips came out a year ago we have had a ton of interest from
R&D
labs, universities, and private technology enthusiasts (the early
adopter crowd) but getting large corporations to buy into parallel
computing
has proven incredibly challenging. This phenomenon has
been seen by long list of parallel computing companies over the last
twenty
years that have so far failed to reach ubiquitous general purpose
adoption.(see list) Based on the struggles of these companies and our own
experiences in selling the Epiphany, we now understand that there is no way a single company can do it alone. The only way to
create a sustainable parallel computing platform is through a broad grass roots
movement.




Together we can launch a full on attack on the daunting problem of
converting the software industry to parallel over the next few years
after 70 years dominated by serial programming.


What will your pledges be used for?

The following picture
shows our most recent Epiphany prototype platform based on an off the
shelf open source reference board. The picture also highlights some of
the work needed to reduce the size and cost of the platform to fit the
cost and size goals of the Parallella project.




Epiphany Chip Cost Reduction Steps:

• Chip foundry retooling changes will reduce silicon costs to a few
  dollar per chip. These changes are very expensive and account for a
  large part of the funds needed to produce a low cost Parallella
  computer. Our 16-core Epiphany chips have been in the field for over a
  year and have been tested thoroughly by many hardcore developers. Chip
  product retooling for the sake of cost reduction is usually referred to
  as a "full mask tapeout" and should be considered a low risk part of the
  project. Our current low volume chip manufacturing flow only yields 50
  dies per wafer. By creating full production mask sets for our chips we
  will be able to yield 1000's of dies per wafer.
  
• To reach the aggressive $99 price point we will also need to set up high volume chip testing and assembly flows.
  

Partners have already been lined up for both cost reduction steps discussed.
Parallella Computer Development Work:

• All major IC components have already been selected for the Parallella board, but cost minimization will continue.
  
• We will be engaging with an experienced external board product
  design team to complete the design and layout of the Parallella boards.
  
• We will work with internal and external resource to seamlessly
  integrate the Epiphany coprocessor drivers and development tools with
  the Ubuntu distribution currently running on the reference platform.
  

Production:

• Buying in bulk significantly reduces the cost of the platform.
  Without the large batch build enabled by this project, the cost of the
  Parallella boards would be many times higher.
  

Except for the Epiphany multiprocessor chips, The Parallella computer is a fairly standard ARM
based low cost single board computer, giving us confidence that we will be able to meet our size and cost constraints.
It's Time

We
don't have time to wait for the rest of the industry to come around to
the fact that parallel computing is the the only path forward and that
we need to act now. We hope you will join us in our mission to change
the way computers are built.




Risks and challenges
Learn about accountability on Kickstarter



The Parallella carries risks like any major engineering
project. Any design flaw can set product releases back months and part
shortages can push out delivery times significantly. We know as well as
anyone that it only takes a single bug to make a product unusable.


The Adapteva team has a lot of experience in delivering complicated
projects on time within specifications and our development risk is
reduced by having long standing relationships in place with first rate
suppliers and manufacturers.


We are very confident that we can deliver what have proposed! Still,
we want to make it clear that we can't guarantee that we will be able to
deliver. If you do make a pledge to the Parallella project your are
doing it knowing that there is a risk that something will go wrong. The
one thing we can guarantee is that we will put our heart and soul into
this project (like we did for 4 years when we built the Epiphany
processor chips) and that we will be honest and transparent about our
progress throughout the Parallella project.





FAQ

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  How many cores do the initial $99 Epiphany-III based Parallella boards have?
  
  
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  When will the 64-core Parallella boards be available?
  
  
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  Why do you call the Parallella a supercomputer?
  
  
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  Where can I learn more about the Epiphany processors?
  
  

Ask a question




Report this project to Kickstarter


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adapteva/parallella-a-supercomputer-for-everyone



http://www.adapteva.com/

Wow start doing doing some serious chess on one of those

What a generous offer of information on The Parallella Project! Love it! Thank you Bettina. p.s.Would you happen to know how the small guy interested in performance desktop computers, could take advantage of this?

Concerning The Parallella Project-Do theses boards support SSE4.2 and above? Thanks

     

hello everyone

I like the deign of the machine too