the 12 Core Mac

[GIThruster]

This has spacecraft GN&C written all over it:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/14 ... e_mac_pro/

[hanelyp]

Not a whole lot of software that can make effective use of a 12 core processor, and most of what comes to my mind isn't for a single user desktop.

[GIThruster]

I'm sure that's true. I'd note though, given the fresh challenges of a true Spacedrive that can generate constant acceleration over the entire course of a trip, we're going to need some new programing, and this little can is pretty cool.

Consider the challenge with many dozens, hundreds or even thousands of smallish thrusters mounted all over a ship, and wanting to keep the deck normal to the acceleration at any given time with people moving about and redistributing the mass similarly to what happens in modern jet liners, and the GN&C for such craft will have little resemblance to what all past spacecraft have had. Might take some extra cores.

[mvanwink5]

Audio software with multiple plug-ins could easily use such hardware, and video, etc.

[ScottL]

Even with a thousand smaller thrusters, I just don't see the need of a high multicore system. The calculations for adjustments are pretty easy, all manageable by a TI-83 calculator. The bottleneck just isn't going to be the computer. Also, I don't think you'd need any type of new programming, the tried and true will work just fine. I agree with hanelyp that most software just isn't designed with multiple cores in mind. There are exceptions when it comes to multicore synthesizers and video rendering like MAYA, etc., but these are the exception, not the norm.

[GIThruster]

I think the programming may have less in common with the tried and true as you'd think at first. Remember that constant thrust spacecraft have no need to enter orbit of any sort, nor make hypersonic reentries, nor calculations for specific burns, etc. What is necessary for rocket science would be obsolete with a Spacedrive.

[hanelyp]

Continuous thrust is hardly a foreign concept to mainstream rocket scientists, though usually applied in a low thrust context such as an ion thruster or solar sail.

[palladin9479]

There is nothing special nor powerful about that system, something better could easily be built cheaper. Apple is the Gucci of the computer world, they take cheap commodity components and have a chinese workers put them together to sell at a massive markup with a fashionable logo on the side.

If your truly interested in parallel processing then your going to want to use a GPU or the Xeon Phi as those can compete 10~100x times faster then a scalar general purpose CPU. This is what rendering farms use whenever studios create the CGI elements in movies, though they use it on a stupendously large scale. A scalled down home version could be done for under $1000, heck could even go under $750 as powerful CUDA, OpenCL and GPGPU capable cards can be found in the $200 USD range. Crypto currency miners are currently using these cheap parallel processors to do their mining with.

[ScottL]

There is nothing special nor powerful about that system, something better could easily be built cheaper. Apple is the Gucci of the computer world, they take cheap commodity components and have a chinese workers put them together to sell at a massive markup with a fashionable logo on the side.

If your truly interested in parallel processing then your going to want to use a GPU or the Xeon Phi as those can compete 10~100x times faster then a scalar general purpose CPU. This is what rendering farms use whenever studios create the CGI elements in movies, though they use it on a stupendously large scale. A scalled down home version could be done for under $1000, heck could even go under $750 as powerful CUDA, OpenCL and GPGPU capable cards can be found in the $200 USD range. Crypto currency miners are currently using these cheap parallel processors to do their mining with.

++

I left out the details of GPUs being used to mine bitcoins and crack passwords, but Palladin nailed it. I'm a software engineer by trade due to selecting the CS side of my CSEE (hurray combined degrees). As I said above, the math is not new and therefore the programming will not be new. Now for a quick plug of my favorite NASA simulator, The Kerbal Space Program. While it is not a perfect sim, it's the closest thing available in an easy to consume video game. Build and fly your own aircraft and rockets, learn the math behind orbits and orbital burns. Land on far away planets and moons, but remember, conserve your fuel appropriately, that is unless you have the Tardis (importable).

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

[GIThruster]

I've looked at kerbel before and it seems would be great fun if I had the time to pursue one more thing. As is I had to cancel all my hobbies 8 years ago just to keep pace with the M-E work.

Someone was posting here recently about rad hardened chips and I have an interest in this. Is there anyone who can explain a little about what is involved in obtaining custom rad hardened chips, and even the costs in having custom chips designed and built? I had someone tell me recently a custom chip costs on the order of $1.2M and though I believe this, I'd sure like to know how to get the cost down.

Also if anyone is familiar with the specific calcs to breech the Van Allen belt, if there's a specific shielding/time in the belt approximation one wants to achieve, etc., I'd love to hear about that. How do you know given any set amount of time in the belt you need x shielding?

[hanelyp]

As I understand it, the biggest issue with radiation resistance on microchips is avoiding or recovering from single event upsets, where a radiation impact changes the logic state of an element. A leading method for that is simply building larger feature sizes with high precision. I.e. build a chip with complexity and feature size of a classic 80386 with modern fab equipment. A larger transistor can absorb a more energetic particle without a malfunction. Isotopic purity to avoid problem isotopes may also be used.

Error correction code methods may also be used, a method not specific to radiation tolerance.

[palladin9479]

Error correction code methods may also be used, a method not specific to radiation tolerance.

Several HPC orientated systems are already using ECC equipped processors. For your typical consumer market it is extremely overkill as the OS and software tend to display errors in the form of instability or glitch's. A radiological event happening on your home PC won't have much impact and doesn't necessitate the additional expense of ECC processing. That same event happening inside a mission critical system on the other hand could have very bad consequences costing millions of USD.

[ladajo]

Some designs use dual systems running independently that do a results handshake. If one disagrees with the other, they run the process again.
One of the issues with the Shuttles was that it was getting hard to find the old system boards. They had a stock of them, but the pile was getting low. They did no twant to go to anything more modern due to increased risk to system erros due to cosmic. I had a nice chat with one of the systems engineers about this in the Processing Facility shortly before the last two launches. If I recall right, we were talking under Atlantis' wing (in the bay), and Endeavour was in full stack over at Assy. and was rolling out that afternoon. You really can't appreciate how big Assy. is until you have been in it with a full stack in one of the bays. I just wish I could have seen it at it's heyday with V's stacked in the bays.
Anyway...I rambled...

[Betruger]

Crypto currency miners are currently using these cheap parallel processors to do their mining with.

Great application for trojans.

[kunkmiester]

Low count chip costs are mostly going to be in the setup. To cut the cost you'll have to find a better way to make single/low volume orders. I've had a couple of crazy ideas but don't have the EE and quantum mechanics to sort it out. If you know someone let me know though, be more than happy to let someone better equipped work on them.