Dr. Stephen Keckler speaks to faculty members at the ACES Building Thursday about the University’s collaboration with IBM in developing a groundbreaking single-chip supercomputer. The UT team is expected to produce prototype chips as early as December 2005.
The computer science department celebrated Thursday the transition of a powerful new computer processor from planning stages to construction of a prototype.
Current computers have processors that operate at speeds of roughly 3 gigahertz, but the new chip will allow computers to pro-cess at speeds close to 10 gigahertz, delivering more than 1 trillion operations per second, researchers said. The technology relies on Tera-Op Reliable and Intelligently Processing System, also known as TRIPS, a more flexible design structure.
Stephen Keckler and Douglas Burger, both computer science assistant professors, said the chip is an innovation in microprocessor architecture and the beginning of the third generation of microprocessors. Keckler and Burger started the project three years ago. A team of scientists from IBM and Charles Moore, a senior research fellow, also worked closely on the project.
The team currently is focused on building a prototype by the end of 2005, with a running speed of 500 megahertz. Although this speed is not optimal, the team's emphasis is on the validity of architecture rather than speed. The team also hopes the chip will be ready in the coming decade for scientific purposes, commercial users and future programs.
The University received a grant of $11.1 million from the U.S. government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, according to a statement from the University released Wednesday.
This undertaking is an enormous project for the computer science department. Whereas the computer industry usually has hundreds of people working on the development and building of a chip, only a small team of about 30 individuals from the Univer-sity and IBM are working on the TRIPS chip, said Jeff Burns, IBM team leader.
Members of the team, however, are optimistic and look forward to the future.
"What's interesting about this project is that it is going to examine how technology and applications are going to be changing," said Michael Dahlin, an associate professor of computer science.
