K Core Processors
Intel is hinting at the possibility of a future with processors containing hundreds or even thousands of cores. While graphics applications seem to be driving much of this trend, I see the possibilities for robotics as truly monumental. Software development for real-time response and control of actuators and sensors has always been a bit awkward with asynchronous interrupts bumping into each-other and cumbersome state machine loops. A possible solution to this mess, and to a much-needed advancement in robot performance are multiple processor systems with additional processors providing centralized supervisory control. When that trend takes hold, a programmer will be able to instruct a mobility routine to approach the refrigerator using a group of processors dedicated to that task, and not risk crashing the battery monitoring routines in the process. It seems to me that the trend is more towards a massively parallel array of much simpler processors - something between neural networks of biological systems and the overburdened, highly complex, single-processor systems of today. Processors of the giant array can be simpler, slower and die without bringing down the whole system. The result will be a faster and more fault-tolerant system that is easier to program, and even cheaper to produce.
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