As a Computer and Electronic Systems student, I have quite an interest in this little number.
I came upon this paper while I was learning a little about Sun Microsystems. I had an interview with them last week, so I felt compelled to find out what they actually do!
It's called the FLEETzero chip, and despite not being a Turing-complete machine, demonstrates the potential in using a whole new paradigm in computer design. Rather than using operation-centric design, which involves focussing on the instructions a processor will perform, the chip is designed with communication-centric design in mind. What this means is that the chip essentially executes 'move' operations - which move one piece of data from one part of the chip to another. At the lowest level, a programmer would be constructing basic instructions as a side-effect of moving data.
Why? Well, the most expensive part of computer design, as the paper explains, is communication. Time, of course, is the resource at a premium. By focussing on reducing the time spent on communicating data from one component to another, the performance of a machine can possibly be increased dramatically. Have a look at the paper to find out how this is achieved.
