The microprocessor of 2020: Why you should care, and what you can do about it

The microprocessor of the year 2020 will have 1000 cores on it, and unless you get involved, it will either just be an array of cores thrown over the transom for you to figure out what to do with, or it will be easy to use but run like a turtle, compared to what it could do. These two extremes are not unlikely, unless those with applications get involved. Most of the gurus of computer architecture insist that if they want their products to sell, all the cores better be identical and the programming model better be easy. Yet another example of computer technology providing enormous capability only to be done in by human frailty. In this talk, I hope to quickly explain what multi-core is, how it came about, and then point out in more detail some of the nonsense bandied about about multicore, and discuss what is possible, if we all get involved.