The gpgpu.org web site is a useful resource for anyone interested in General Purpose (GP) computation using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).

Now that AMD has bought ATI, their R580 GPU has moved from being the GPU for the Radeon graphics processor product line to something dubbed the Stream Processor by AMD.  This device is being aimed not just at traditional graphics / gaming applications but at general purpose scientific computation.

Mentor Graphics and Mercury Computer Systems have teamed to accelerate a lithography EDA application called Optical Proximity Correction (OPC).  This compute intensive application calculates what physical circuits will actually look like after various optical and physical effects during manufacturing.  The announcement from Mercury Conputer Systems is below.

Mercury Computer Systems Announces Partnership with Mentor Graphics and Development of First Cell BE Processor-Based Platform for EDA Market

With high density FPGAs able to support dozens (if not more) soft CPUs, a design trend of using multiple soft CPUs in an FPGA is emerging.  Altera has a new demonstration of a three CPU design at:

Nios II Multiprocessor Example

EE Times is hosting a site called the Intel Multicore Briefing Center at http://www.multicore.eetimes.com/  It contains links to Intel White Papers and other Multicore related information.

In the December / January 2006-2007 issue of ACM Queue magazine, Kunle Olukotun interviews John Hennessey and David Patterson.  Some very good insights on the future of multicore.

A Conversation with John Hennessy and David Patterson

Professor Richard Newton of Berkeley, a pioneer in CAD, passed away this week.

A. Richard Newton, 55, Electronic Design Pioneer, Is Dead

EE Times discusses the NXP multi-core multimedia device using Trimedia DSPs and ARM CPUs. This device is aimed at the automotive entertainment market:

NXP demos multi-core approach to in-car entertainment

Freescale has announced a dual core device for audio processing.  The DSP cores are 24-bit DSP56300 processors and meet performance standards for HD audio.  An article in EE Times gives more details:

AUDIO SYSTEMS: Pair of DSPs tune in to high-definition audio

Mobileye has anounced it’s new Eye-Q SoC for vision applications.  It contains two 32-bit ARM RISC CPU cores, four special-purpose DSP cores and several peripheral interfaces.  It is aimed at imaging for the automotive market.