Linux Ported To Multi-Core DSP

prostoalex writes "UK-based Imagination Technologies announced the first port of Linux to multi-threaded DSP architecture. The port is done for Imagination's META core that it licenses out to those needing a generic DSP architecture. According to the company, 'META can run Linux on one hardware thread while running real-time DSP tasks on the other threads. META can also re-allocate MIPS on the fly so that each thread can be delivered the guaranteed share of processing resource and response time that it needs, while never clocking the processor faster than is required.'"

Re:Compulsory reply

[NanoGator]

"Imagine, just imagine......
A beowulf cluster of these! "

Imagine, just imagine, a beowulf cluster of monkeys typing out every permutation of this joke.

Nice.

[torpor]

Just last week I was discussing the potential for a Linux port to DSP architectures with the powers that be here at Access.

This META port will give us some seriously interesting things to look at in the coming weeks, anyway. Too bad we can't get a Moto56k port of the Linux kernel, heh heh ...

Still, it remains to be seen how useful the META will be in our market (pro audio/synthesizers) ... but I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Linux and DSP work ...

Aw man!

[Rhinobird]

Someone already made the Beowulf joke...

Along those same lines, imagine linux using the DSP to automagically connect wirelessly to other linux dsp's and creating a (slow) wireless beowulf cluster, just from people wondering around with these devices on them.

oh wait...i just had 3 WAY better ideas on how to use these things...

so, STOP IMAGINING a beowulcluster of ANYTHING....

Re:Aw man!

[NanoGator]

"so, STOP IMAGINING a beowulcluster of ANYTHING.... "

Yeah! Instead, welcome your" & $ARTICLE_TOPIC & " overlords.

Re:Aw man!

[ralphclark]

In SOVIET RUSSIA, Overlords welcome YOU!

DAAAAMN! HOT DAMN!

[wowbagger]

Now this is something a veteran embedded software engineer can really get excited about!

Most wireless systems are becoming little more than a means of shoving TCP/IP packets over the air, with voice crammed in the cracks. As a result, you need hard realtime processing, but you also need UI, protocol stack, and layer 7 (applications). And while a big box [p25.com] can get away with multiple processors, a phone cannot.

Having a hardware partitioned, hard realtime PLUS Linux system WITH full virtual memory (not uCLinux without virtual memory) is VERY compelling for an embedded developer.

Of course, this trend has been going on for some time - Xilinx with their 2 or 4 PowerPC-core Vertex 2Pro FPGAs, the various Strongarm/DSP, PowerPC/DSP and MIPS/DSP hybrid chips from Motorola et. al., plus things like the K.U. Realtime extensions and Monte Vista kernels.

I definitely will be keeping an eye on this at work....

is this the first?

[fortunatus]

is this really the first LINUX on a multithread CPU? Intel "Hyper-Threading" is regular multithreading that has gone through the marketing department.... has no LINUX implementation had access to an Intel HT cpu yet? what about the old DEC Alpha multithread designs - i believe they invented the technique back in about 1996 - were they ever instantiated in hardware?

the difference here

[SHEENmaster]

is that Linux just gets one thread, and another probess gets the other.

I assume that traditionally, Linux just dominated both, with the DSP threads forced to fight with Linux threads for dominance of clock cycles.

but ,,,

[badnews]

how much is SCO asking for their Linux license on this little beauty?