[oc] Re: Merlin Hybrid System

[Andreas Bombe <bombe@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>]

On Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 10:09:37AM -0600, Jim Dempsey wrote:
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Andreas Bombe" <bombe@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
> To: <cores@opencores.org>
> Sent: Monday, December 03, 2001 8:02 PM
> Subject: [oc] Re: Merlin Hybrid System
> ...
> > 
> > "It also provides the ability to run multiple operating systems designed
> > for the same language to be run simultaneously, enabling two or three
> > x86 operating systems to run at the same time." - Virtualization is not
> > easy, especially not with systems not designed for it (like x86).  It
> > also needs a host OS under which the virtualizer runs.
> > 
> 
> Virtualization of an x86 "language" (instructions?) is commercialy done
> now with the Transmeta Crusoe processors. However, Transmeta Crusoe
> does not virtualize using multiple processors. Nor does it virtualize
> multiple processors using one processor.

I realize now that Transmeta call their code translation
"virtualization" but that's not what I meant.  I was talking about
creating virtual machines that run on the real hardware (without
emulation) under control of a monitor program.  That what VMWare or
plex86 do for x86.

Code translation does not depend much on the instruction set design.
Virtualization on the other hand can either work by design or only be
accomplished by performance eating hacks (as in the x86 case).

> I've concieved of a method
> by which using an extension of the Crusoe technology that multiple
> processors can be used effectively and transparently to make a single
> threaded program use multiple threads, make a single processor
> operating system use multiple processors, and make an n-processor
> operating system use more than n-processors.

I don't believe that.  Are you saying that you could take one single
threaded program, let's say a raytracer, and convert it to a multi
threaded program?  Raytracing is nicely parallelizable:  Divide the
picture up into parts or an animation into pictures and distribute the
load.  How are you going to automate that (finding the line/frame loop
and taking it apart)?  Your converter would have to _understand_ the
program, i.e. it would have to be an AI.

I doubt the transparency part.  As for the effectiveness, have you
benchmarked it?

-- 
Andreas Bombe <bombe@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>    DSA key 0x04880A44
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