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by stan_rogers 2000 days ago
SpiNNaker[0] is a species of that, with multi-dimensional connections in a toroidal surface configuration. It's ARM-based, largely because the chief developer/project head is Steve Furber. Along with interviews concerning the BBC Micro and ARM, Computerphile did a video with Furber concerning SPiNNaker[1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpiNNaker [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e06C-yUwlc

2 comments

Yes SpiNNaker looks very cool, also of course the BBC Micro connection as you say. I do wonder what the network architecture is, so now I'm going to have to watch that video you posted :-)

Edit: It's a toroid, which seems an unusual choice (because 2D) for something that's meant to simulate a brain. I wonder if a simple 3D cubic connection network would have been possible by adding more links between physically adjacent boards.

I'm surprised it was worthwhile to build, since the whole thing has only 7TB of ram. I guess the total memory bandwidth is really good.