Parallella is going to change the way that computers are made, and Adapteva offers you chance to join in on this revolution. Simply put, it’s a supercomputer for everyone. Basically, an energy-efficient computer built for processing complex software simultaneously and effectively. Real-time object tracking, holographic heads-up display, speech recognition will become even stronger and smarter with Parallella.
The project has been successfully funded so far, with an estimated delivery date of February 2013. For a mini supercomputer, the price seems really promising since it’s magically $99! It’s not recommended for the non-programmer and non-Linux user, but the kit is loaded with development software to create your personal projects.
I never thought the future of computing could be kick-started with just $99, which is made possible using crowdfunding platforms.
Parallella Computer Specifications
The Parallella platform is an open source, energy efficient, high performance, credit-card sized computer based on the Epiphany multicore chips developed by Adapteva. This affordable platform is designed for developing and implementing high performance, parallel processing applications developed to take advantage of the on-board Epiphany chip. The Epiphany 16 or 64 core chips consists of a scalable array of simple RISC processors programmable in C/C++ connected together with a fast on chip network within a single shared memory architecture.
For detailed information see:
Parallella Reference Manual (PDF)
Parallella Schematic (PDF)
Epiphany Architecture Reference Manual (PDF)
Epiphany SDK Reference Manual (PDF)
Epiphany III 16-core Chip Product (PDF)
Epiphany IV 64-core Chip Product (PDF)
Parallella Hardware Design files (GIT)
Any questions should be directed to the Parallella Board forum.
Overview:
Zynq-7000 Series Dual-core ARM A9 CPU (Z-7010 or Z-7020)
1GB RAM
MicroSD Card
2x USB 2.0
4 general purpose expansion connectors
10/100/1000 Ethernet
HDMI port
Ships with Ubuntu OS
3.4″ x 2.15″ form factor
The 66-core version of the Parallella computer delivers over 90 GFLOPS on a board the size of a credit card while consuming only 5 Watts under typical work loads. For certain applications, this would provide more raw performance than a high end server costing thousands of dollars and consuming 400W.
To get an idea just how powerful this little board is, check out benchmark scores for the Epiphany-IV and Epiphany-III processors at coremark.org or read the Adapteva blog post.
