CPU design has been undergoing something of a shake-up recently, what with the addition of NPUs into the mix and some and chip construction techniques to optimise them. Flow Computing, however, has an even more radical suggestion. It's touting a co-processor architecture that gives regular old CPUs a helping hand, with claims of up to a 100x performance increase after some software trickery.
is a startup backed by Finland's state-owned research organisation (via ), and its proposal is to add a Parallel Processing Unit (PPU) integrated into a co-processor that works alongside a traditional CPU to help traffic-manage incoming tasks.
Modern, multicore CPUs can handle dozens of threads at a time, but synchronising them all and handling the data required takes up lots of valuable clock cycles. essentially handles this for the CPU, reducing latencies, especially in massively parallel workloads.
Flow's co-founder and CEO Timo Valtonen said: "The CPU is the weakest link in computing...it’s not up to its task, and this will need to change.”
This isn't the first time such an idea has been suggested. Traditionally, however, this sort of solution would require all code to be completely rewritten to facilitate the process. Flow says that its architecture can , significantly boosting performance, particularly in regard to apps that display parallelism but are held back by traditional thread-based processing.
That's not all, though. With some software recompilation, Flow says that modified code built to take advantage of the PPU would be capable of performance increases of up to 100x, and has posited the release of custom tools to help developers adapt.
However, that 100x performance boost claim is only valid if the original workload is capable of being parallelised to that extent, even with the help of a custom tool. Something like a game, for example, wouldn't feel the full benefit unless it was completely re-coded to take advantage.
: The top chips from Intel and AMD.
: The right boards.
: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
: Get into the game ahead of the rest.
Quite the gamble then, as to whether this extra hardware could be feasibly implemented in a mass-production format for a major chip company, especially as companies like AMD, Intel and Nvidia have already invested billions in massively parallel processors: .
Flow is still a startup with big ideas, after all, and although it's , it still seems like very early days for the company and would represent a massive gear-shift for any major chip maker looking to produce its design.
Still, with claims this bold, it's likely to have drawn some serious interest. Whether this leads to a future of co-processor harmony on your desktop or mobile PC in years to come though, remains a real question mark for now.