Parallel processing will make it possible, among other things, to watch TV broadcasts on cellular devices without quickly consuming battery resources
Although the manufacturers of communication and electronic products vigorously publish the higher and higher performance data of the devices they offer to the market, the basic architecture of mobile devices currently does not allow them to fully exploit these capabilities. Mobile device users who cannot connect their equipment to the power socket relatively often, are forced to carefully plan the number of hours of operation available to them before enjoying a quality video broadcast, or playing a game that requires massive processing.
The ACOTES project, funded by the framework program of the European Community for Research and Development, combines a number of leading companies in an attempt to achieve new levels of processor efficiency - through effective parallel execution of tasks, while utilizing areas and resources on the chip whose processing capacity is not exhausted in the current work format.
The project, which is planned to last three years, is designed to enable efficient utilization of the parallel processing capacity already available in the environment of the chips used in the industry, with utilization rates of approximately 90% of the chip's processing capacity in certain applications. Today, these chips use an average of only about 40-50% of their parallel processing capacity. Availability of efficient technology for parallel processing and more efficient utilization of the current in cell phones, for example, will allow, among other things, to watch TV broadcasts without quickly consuming battery resources.
Dr. David Bernstein, director of software technologies and design verification at the IBM research laboratory in Haifa stated that "the increase in the parallel work capabilities of chips - gives rise to a higher level of complexity when it comes to application programming. Programmers are currently faced with the challenge of utilizing the parallel capabilities, and the problem of setting priorities for performing tasks and utilizing processing resources, and allocating these resources at the chip level."
New tools and methods developed as part of the ACOTES project are expected to simplify and facilitate this programming work. The tools developed at ACOTES will be available for use by the open source code community, as part of the GCC compiler.
In addition to the IBM research laboratory in Haifa, the list of partners in the ACOTES project includes NXP from the Netherlands (formerly the semiconductor division of Philips), STMicroelectronics from Italy, the INRIA Institute from France, the UPC University in Spain and the Silicon Hive company from the Netherlands.
