One of those unmistakable trends I mentioned in my last post – boutique processors – got one step closer to reality this week with Raytheon announcing the first tests with MONARCH processor silicon.
MONARCH stands for “morphable networked micro-architecture”, and according to Raytheon targets these key attributes:
A distributed processor architecture making the chip highly scalable and fault tolerant
Distributed inter-node communication for higher processing bandwidth and resource utilization
The ability to handle multiple computing models: Scalar Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC), Wide Word and Streaming
System-on-a-chip (SOC) computing, which minimizes cost and area associated with peripheral components and improves power and volume efficiency
Reconfigurable computational array (morphability), which is dynamically tunable to meet application needs
The highest efficiency (GFLOPS/Watt; GFLOPS/m3) processing power
How fast is it? “In laboratory testing MONARCH outperformed the Intel quad-core Xeon chip by a factor of 10,” said Michael Vahey, Raytheon’s principal investigator for MONARCH.
I can’t wait to see Critical Embedded Systems showing up with this processor inside soon.