Intel and Microsoft fund $20M grant to reinvent computing: where do you want to go tomorrow?

Although both Microsoft and Intel's R&D departments have been responsible for some nifty futuristic tech, the two companies got together last week and announced a $20M grant to two universities to "start over" and develop next-gen computing systems based around parallel processing. The grant will fund Universal Parallel Computing Research Centers at UC -Berkeley, which is kicking in another $7M, and the University of Illinois at Champaign / Urbana, which is donating $8M of its own. According to Mark Snir, head of the UIUC lab, the goal is to find a way to make "parallelism so easy to use that parallel programming becomes synonymous with programming" -- an increasingly important priority as current multi-core processors aren't necessarily being fully utilized, and 100-core processors aren't far off. That leads us to wonder: what to do with all that newly-unlocked processing power? Virtual-reality Facebook? Real-time visual augmentation? Finally being able to run Crysis? We know you've got ideas -- sound off in comments!

[Thanks, Luke]

[chris @ Mar 25th 2008 8:07PM]

we need to be able to run crysis 2. cuz when that comes out for sure no one will be able to play it

[Dillon @ Mar 25th 2008 8:08PM]

Slow down. We still have Crysis 1 to deal with...

[James Cameron @ Mar 25th 2008 8:28PM]

What does Crysis have anything to do with Intel? That's the stupid game and video card problem.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 25th 2008 9:37PM]

Wow, man... James, it seems as if no one agrees with you... Oh well.

[iGO @ Mar 25th 2008 10:55PM]

That computer in Minority Report is a good start.

[Chimuel @ Mar 26th 2008 12:06AM]

@ James Cameron

You realize that Intel (not nVidia or ATI) is the largest provider of GPUs worldwide?

Seriously... go around and you will see that most PCs have onboard video cards from Intel.

Go ahead, I'll wait right here.

[Mr.Tech @ Mar 27th 2008 8:01PM]

Man, screw Crysis! I have been waiting for a processor that will allow me to play Tron in virtual reality since 1982.

[Dillon @ Mar 25th 2008 8:07PM]

I think all this newly unlocked processor power should be used to make the Internet like how they showed it in Futurama. That would be awesome.

[Eric @ Mar 26th 2008 7:58AM]

My god... It's full of ads!

RUN!

[JC @ Mar 25th 2008 8:11PM]

FASTER PORN!

[James Cameron @ Mar 25th 2008 8:37PM]

You mean Virtual Sex. If I can't have Jessica Alba in real life, virtual Alba would do just fine. Jack me into the MATRIX...

[Matt E. @ Mar 25th 2008 10:40PM]

Remember,if you use too much CPU power for porn, Kelly LeBrock comes out of your closet and fucks up your parent's house.

[IkeTurner @ Mar 25th 2008 8:13PM]

Folding protein and save life

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 25th 2008 8:15PM]

Pfff... Thats not fun- I wanna' play a holographic version of DooM!

[iofthestorm @ Mar 25th 2008 9:36PM]

Indeed, run folding@home and help stanford's cancer research and other research projects related to protein folding.
http://folding.stanford.edu

[ethana2 @ Mar 25th 2008 11:04PM]

Unlock the mysteries of the Universe!!!

[Mush @ Mar 26th 2008 12:52AM]

how about play holographic doom, holographic crysis, fold proteins at the same time, and play other high-end games at holographic level at the same time?

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 26th 2008 1:06AM]

Unlock the secrets of my pants? :O

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 26th 2008 10:01AM]

Yeah, figured that one wouldn't work- worth the shot though...

[peshue @ Mar 25th 2008 8:14PM]

Thats great. Hopefully we won't end up in a situation with multicores like with 64bit processors where they rarely get fully utilized despite having been around quite awhile now.

[Darak @ Mar 25th 2008 8:19PM]

Definitely gotta cast my vote for VR. The promise of a truly interactive computing experience is what I would define as a "reinvention."

[ace_spades @ Mar 25th 2008 8:25PM]

VR windows?
viewing folders in 3d would actually be pretty cool. (but M$ would limit it to windows $currentversion ultimate)

[Andune @ Mar 25th 2008 8:31PM]

VR Viruses?
That would be awesome!

[Darak @ Mar 25th 2008 8:48PM]

@Andune - I refer you to Tom Clancy's Net Force series.

[roy @ Mar 25th 2008 8:53PM]

i cant even imagine what would happen to your mind and body when you get a BSOD

[James Cameron @ Mar 25th 2008 8:29PM]

I would love a totally SOLID STATE computing. No moving parts.

[peej @ Mar 25th 2008 8:36PM]

What's hard about that? Get a standard motherboard, CPU, a SSD, SD card reader for removable media, and peltier coolers/heatsinks. Unless I'm forgetting something.

[James Cameron @ Mar 25th 2008 9:21PM]

Yeah but you still needs all those fancy fans/heatsinks to keep it cool right? It need to be a top of the line computing not a low end solid state computing that doesn't need a good cooling to keep cool.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 25th 2008 9:40PM]

James... You said *I'M* dumb... Computers use electricity. This electricity flows through the electronics of the computer; that alone creates heat due to resistance, but when you get CPUs and other chips drawing quite a bit of energy to process and whatnot, then you're going to get even more heat. In theory having a system that DOESN'T require cooling is impossible and in reality, even more so. Sorry, but that day will NEVER come unless you go with passive cooling (ie: heatsinks).

[linuxamp @ Mar 25th 2008 10:54PM]

In response to Zeus,
You're wrong that computers will always generate heat. Transistor based computing will always generate heat but optical computing may not. Remember, there's more than one way to flip a switch.

[linuxamp @ Mar 25th 2008 10:54PM]

In response to Zeus,
You're wrong that computers will always generate heat. Transistor based computing will always generate heat but optical computing may not. Remember, there's more than one way to flip a switch.

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 25th 2008 10:59PM]

Ok... Sorry- didn't think about that, but as of right now, that won't happen; the best you can do is passive cooling...

But even with optical computing, it still uses electricity, and last time I noticed, light generates heat as well so there will be some level of heat dissipation.

[Drew Lewis @ Mar 30th 2008 2:29AM]

in response to Linuxamp:

The second law of thermodynamics would mean that anytime you're using energy to do work it can not be 100% efficient. Any computer would generate heat. The amount of heat may be minimal but it will always be there.

[chris @ Mar 25th 2008 8:33PM]

no way.. someone's going to patent anything I have to say here on the subject

:P

[Yor1001 @ Mar 25th 2008 11:08PM]

I am going to patent internet matrix, that way when its finally made, I'll be able to sue. Its such a fool proof idea.

[ShiroEd @ Mar 26th 2008 9:53AM]

Statistically we already exist in The Matrix.

http://www.simulation-argument.com/matrix.html

[ClaudeNap @ Mar 26th 2008 12:43PM]

ShiroEd
I clicked you're link. It's hard to take anything seriously that misspells "civilization" in the second paragraph.

[sitruc @ Mar 27th 2008 4:18AM]

English use an "s" instead of the "z" that is used in American English.

[Alex Padilla @ Mar 25th 2008 8:34PM]

jack into the Matrix.

[Saer @ Mar 25th 2008 8:40PM]

Thats the idea, make a massively parallel interface that can directly interact with you brain. Then we wont need processors to run software.

[Craig @ Mar 25th 2008 8:35PM]

You could use the spare 98 cores to run a program to patch Vista SP1 on the fly. So 2 cores to run vista, 98 cores to keep it stable.

[JMMGoalster @ Mar 25th 2008 8:54PM]

I dunno whats goin on with your Vista machine, but mine works perfectly. Even better after SP1....

[Chuck @ Mar 25th 2008 9:23PM]

@JMMGoalster:

He doesn't have one. Thus the reason for his inaccurate comment; He just follows the popular bash Microsoft mentality.

[Justin @ Mar 26th 2008 12:00AM]

with the amount of trash talk on this site you guys get bent out of shape over one funny M$ joke... wow little touchy aren't we. (btw Vista is the worst OS ever, I know because I use it)

[jvh @ Mar 26th 2008 1:39AM]

You know I've found that, most of the time, the problem isn't the software, the user is. Don't blame vista for your short comings. My Vista box has worked w/out a hitch for several months.

[Justin @ Mar 25th 2008 8:39PM]

Virtual reality eh.... we'll finally be able to punch people over the internet.

[TheCow5 @ Mar 25th 2008 9:27PM]

I am with you with that one.
its no longer can you see me or can you hear me, it will be can you feel me me now.

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 25th 2008 9:46PM]

optimized operating systems and no preinstalled bloatware.

i went to circuit city today and fiddled with demo systems.
all of them had over 75, sometimes over 85 processes going.
using up over a gig of memory.
come on. i don't care how hard it is, make the operating system use a few resources as possible.
if microsoft released a minimalistic vista that looked exactly like '95 but had support for the latest games and hardware while using >250mb RAM, it would sell like opium in old china.

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 25th 2008 9:47PM]

what?
that wasn't supposed to be a reply....
dammit.

[andres @ Mar 26th 2008 12:43AM]

punching people over the internet, finally, a solution for all those doom and blend comments