reid@sask.UUCP (03/23/87)
In article <505@cpocd2.UUCP>, howard@cpocd2.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) writes: > We have an existence proof that the serial bottleneck can be made to go > away. It's called the human brain. So there's still hope! > Howard A. Landman > ...!intelca!mipos3!cpocd2!howard If you check out some of Hillis' Connection Machine references (like the ones in the recent (Jan. 87, I think) CACM), he points out that there are problems which are provably serial - that is, which cannot be speeded up no matter how many processors you have. The simple solution is just to not run these problems on your super-multiprocessor. Another recent poster made a more important point - when large-scale multiprocessors become general-purpose enough to handle context switching, a serial section in one process will simply free up all the other processors to run something else at the same time. - irving reid - -- reid@sask.uucp {alberta, ihnp4, utcsri}!sask!reid What the world REALLY needs is a good Automatic Bicycle Sharpener.