Re: First Commercial Optical Processor

From: Andrew Swallow (am.swallow_at_eatspam.btinternet.com)
Date: 10/30/03 

Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 16:17:29 +0000 (UTC)

"Le Chaud Lapin" <unoriginal_username@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:fc2e0ade.0310292101.532cd851@posting.google.com...
> Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@t-online.de> wrote in message
news:<3FA02A81.4EC7A701@t-online.de>...
> > cesar bremer wrote:
> > >
> > > In this link you will see more:
> > >
> > > http://www.lenslet.com/newsItem.asp?showArchive=&newsId=184
> > >
> > > "The processor is specified to run at a speed of 8 Tera (8,000 Giga)
> > > operations per second, one thousand times faster than any known DSP"
> >
> > Being ignorant in hardware issues, I have a dumb question:
> > Couldn't a DSP do quite a lot of what a normal processor
> > does (anyway if a number of DSPs are employed)? Thanks.
> >
> > M. K. Shen
>
> Yes they can, and just one is sufficient.
>
> Kinda makes you wonder why anyone would want a general-purpose
> processor, doesn't it?
>
General purpose processors are normally better at handling
characters that DSPs. Some DSPs are word based, possibly
24 bit words.

The two styles of processors are a lot closer than they used to
be. General purpose CPUs have acquired multiply instructions
and DSPs compare instructions.

Andrew Swallow

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