Re: [ossig] Anyone interested in doing some tech research?

[Mukhsein Johari <pythonium@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Dinesh Nair <dinesh@alphaque.com> wrote:

> 
> On 01/09/2004 19:37 Mukhsein Johari said the
> following:
> 
> other than working on a compiler/runtime to
> interpret to the GPU 
> instruction set, the rest would be standard parallel
> processing work now 
> wouldn't it ? aren't projects like this (gelertner's
> LINDA, MPI and 
> other parallel proc projects) already
> instantiatedworldwide ? :)

Well, that's one approach. The trick is getting MPI to
work in that scenario. Remember that GPUs aren't
general purpose processors. There's much that can be
leveraged but there's also much to do, I'm sure you'll
agree.

However, the software infrastructure work is only of
interest to computer scientists - this project as
actually to help/enable *physical* science work. So
it's only really a success if scientists can use it on
their desktops for daily work.

> > 2. To get there, researchers will have to create
> > 'device drivers' and other kernel-side (as well as
> > userland) infrastructure software.
> 
> i see the following:
> 
> 1. dynamic runtime compiler/interpreter to convert
> from x86 instruction 
> set to GPU instruction set
> 2. hook into kernel to provide X number of additonal
> virtual CPUs
> 3. reuse kernel's SMP scheduling and locking
> mechanisms.
> 
> you may also want to take a look at FreeBSD 5.x's
> SMPng as it has taken 
> SMP into a slightly different approach wrt mutexes
> and locking.

Yup, there are a few possibilities. This will be up to
the researchers, of course.

> having been in academia, this is not a given. it all
> depends on the 
> project leader and his aptitude to things. i was
> luck in the sense that 
> usm had a dean who was not conservative.

Agreed. But I have good indicators that for this
project, it is the case. (researchers having
directional influence)

> > Commercialization:
> > 1. Indeed, almost all the gov grants I currently
> know
> > of (running/coming to end) have this end goal in
> mind.
> 
> end goal, but there this is rarely met or if it is
> met, it's met with a 
> warped sense of what commercialization means.

I definitely have to agree here. It's getting better,
though. For example, the project I'm attached to is
already in the middle stages of commercialization.
 
> this is not abnormal. many Us do that, paying their
> postgrad students 
> under the designation Research Assistant or RA.

True, but not everyone knows this. Just pointing it
out. I would also like to point out that the pace of
life is a bit slower than private sector work...in the
sense that you're not tackling profit & loss issues.
 
> never return to malaysian academia ever again. i'm
> quite happy being a 
> confused capitalist socialist bastard. :)
> 

Hehehe! You're just old and cynical, Dinesh! :-)




		
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