

Ask HN: Memresistor CPUs - sown

So if this whole paradigm with memresistor CPUs works out how would one program them? Would I even notice? What would the compiler internals look like?
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joshu
Memristor, not memresistor.

Memristors are a fundamental component, analagous to resistors, capacitors,
and inductors.

You probably wouldn't notice the difference, as computers work at a different
abstraction level.

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DennisP
Memristors can function as both transistors and storage, so we could end up
with a lot less concern about cache misses.

They can also mimic the function of neural synapses, so a neural net
coprocessor is a possibility.

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drivebyacct
I don't understand why your post implies that compilers produce... what?
schematics of capacitors, resistors and inductors?

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sown
Well, I was wondering, if they are so super parallelable then shouldn't I do
something to take advantage of that? They say CPUs with many, many cores are
not too far off and that software is the issue. Programmers don't write code
to take advantage of it, I'm told. I was just wondering

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drivebyacct
Well, considering that parallelism among two, three or four cores is already a
problem for "classic" programming... I mean, we've hit the limit on speed for
CPU until some magical graphite stuff comes out, so we've moved to multiple
cores. Multiple cores are great for programs that can utilize them, but as I
understand it, it's generally considered difficult to write truly parallel
code in a language like C or C++.

(source, my crazy Comp Systems & Organizations teacher, plus it kinda makes
sense). I suppose it doesn't answer your question about "super parallelable"
but I would assume that any compiler that generates code for simultaneous
execution based on a language that lets you write such code would simply be
adapted to the new "super parallel" level.

The problem comes down to the fact that you can just throw a regular program
at a compiler and expect it to magically become parallelized.

