<Quote>
REDMOND, Wash. -- [Groves and "software spiral". Challenge of
multicore chips....]
The challenges have not dented the enthusiasm for the potential of the
new parallel chips at Microsoft, where executives are betting that the
arrival of manycore chips -- processors with more than eight cores,
possible as soon as 2010 -- will transform the world of personal
computing.
[Yes, that way the chips will barely be able to keep up with the bloat
in Windows 2010.]
[Microsoft investing in parallel processing...]
"Microsoft is doing the right thing in trying to develop parallel
software," said Andrew Singer, a veteran software designer who is the
co-founder of Rapport Inc., a parallel computing company based in
Redwood City, Calif. "They could be roadkill if somebody else figures
out how to do this first."
Mr. Grove's software spiral started to break down two years ago.
Intel's microprocessors were generating so much heat that they were
melting, forcing Intel to change direction and try to add computing
power by placing multiple smaller processors on a single chip....
[Tough software problem...]
Indeed, a leading computer scientist has warned that an easy solution
to programming chips with dozens of processors has not yet been
discovered.
"Industry has basically thrown a Hail Mary," said David Patterson, a
pioneering computer scientist at the University of California,
Berkeley, referring to the hardware shift during a recent lecture.
"The whole industry is betting on parallel computing. They've thrown
it, but the big problem is catching it."
To accelerate its parallel computing efforts, Microsoft has hired some
of the best minds in the field and has set up teams to explore
approaches to rewriting the company's software.
[MS people think maybe 100x increase in processing speed possible...]
[Microsoft executives talk about hand-held devices...]
[MS hiring experts from academia, industry...]
In the future, Mr. Mundie said, parallel software will take on tasks
that make the computer increasingly act as an intelligent personal
assistant.
"My machine overnight could process my in-box, analyze which ones were
probably the most important, but it could go a step further," he said.
"It could interpret some of them, it could look at whether I've ever
corresponded with these people, it could determine the semantic
context, it could draft three possible replies. [Right before it
crashes.] And when I came in in the morning, it would say, hey, I
looked at these messages, these are the ones you probably care about,
you probably want to do this for these guys, and just click yes and
I'll finish the appointment." ...
"I'm skeptical until I see something that gives me some hope," said
Gordon Bell, one of the nation's pioneering computer designers, who is
now a fellow at Microsoft Research.
Mr. Bell said that during the 1980s, he tried to persuade the computer
industry to take on the problem of parallel computing while he was a
program director at the National Science Foundation, but found little
interest.
[Straight from NSF to Microsoft---how convenient.]
"They told me, 'You can't tell us what to do,'" he said. "Now the
machines are here and we haven't got it right."
</Quote>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/technology/17chip.html
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