AirRaid wrote:
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>> In our opinion, the concept of the GPGPU is the most
>> significant development in the computer environment in at least 15
>> years.
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> From a limited historical scope of comp.arch of only a quarter-century
> (which makes me a rookie here), GPGPU looks basically very similar to a
> Coprocessor as we have seen it a longer while ago. It will need an
> ISA-extension (similar to X87 as well) and couple of years to exploit
> it.
It's not a coprocessor in the X87 sense - not an ISA extension, but a multiprocessor system with two processors with two significantly different ISAs and overall architecture principles.
There's a longer pattern here, it's called "wheel of reincarnation of the graphics processor and the CPU". The pattern here is that graphics processors get more and more general purpose as they develop, and finally become the main CPU. Then, the ISA and architecture settles, and therefore, soon a new graphics accelerator is born, starting the wheel again. GPGPUs are just a step towards an even more general GPU processor, with the x86 compatible part being just a way to achieve backwards compatibility.