Teramac
Encyclopedia
The Teramac was an experimental massively parallel computer
designed by HP in the 1990s. The name reflected the project's vision to provide a programmable gate array system with capacity for a million gates running at a megahertz. Contrary to traditional systems, which are useless if there is one defect, Teramac used defective processors -- intentionally -- to demonstrate its defect-tolerant architecture. Even though the computer had 220,000 hardware defects, it was able to perform some tasks 100 times faster than a single-processor high-end workstation
.
Teramac was originally developed by scientists in HP's central research lab, HP Labs
, in the mid 1990s. Although it contained conventional silicon integrated circuit
technology, it paved the way for some of HP's work in nanoelectronics
because it provided an architecture on which a chemically assembled computer could operate.
The experience from this program was used to design the Field Programmable Nanowire Interconnect
circuit.
Parallel computing
Parallel computing is a form of computation in which many calculations are carried out simultaneously, operating on the principle that large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which are then solved concurrently . There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level,...
designed by HP in the 1990s. The name reflected the project's vision to provide a programmable gate array system with capacity for a million gates running at a megahertz. Contrary to traditional systems, which are useless if there is one defect, Teramac used defective processors -- intentionally -- to demonstrate its defect-tolerant architecture. Even though the computer had 220,000 hardware defects, it was able to perform some tasks 100 times faster than a single-processor high-end workstation
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
.
Teramac was originally developed by scientists in HP's central research lab, HP Labs
HP Labs
HP Labs is the exploratory and advanced research group for Hewlett-Packard. The lab has some 600 researchersin seven locations throughout the world....
, in the mid 1990s. Although it contained conventional silicon integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
technology, it paved the way for some of HP's work in nanoelectronics
Nanoelectronics
Nanoelectronics refer to the use of nanotechnology on electronic components, especially transistors. Although the term nanotechnology is generally defined as utilizing technology less than 100 nm in size, nanoelectronics often refer to transistor devices that are so small that inter-atomic...
because it provided an architecture on which a chemically assembled computer could operate.
The experience from this program was used to design the Field Programmable Nanowire Interconnect
Field Programmable Nanowire Interconnect
Field Programmable Nanowire Interconnect is a new computer architecture developed by Hewlett-Packard. This is a defect-tolerant architecture, using the results of the Teramac experiment.Details:...
circuit.