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other prominent multithreaded cpus have included the lincoln lab tx-2 on which the first graphical interface was developed (with cad, constraint programming, and windows), the cdc 6600 'peripheral processor', the xerox alto, the tera mta, and the higher-end padauk microcontrollers including the pmc251, which cost 10½¢ https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/Microcontroller-Units-MC...

some current intel and amd parts also support 'hyperthreading', but as i understand it they sometimes run many instructions from the same thread sequentially, unlike the others mentioned above (except the padauk pmc251), and they are limited to 2 or 4 threads, again unlike the others mentioned except the pmc251

i'm a little unclear on the extent to which current gpu hardware supports this kind of every-clock-cycle alternation between different instruction streams; does anyone know?



Never heard of the Padauk very curious to dig into the details. Thanks for posting.


sure! i hope you enjoy it! there was a lot of discussion of them about five years ago: https://jaycarlson.net/2019/09/06/whats-up-with-these-3-cent... https://cpldcpu.wordpress.com/2019/08/12/the-terrible-3-cent...


I really like the context switching. I spend a lot time trying to think about big universal circuits for a 100 computer. The context switching provides universalness to the processing I find irresistible.

I want to make big furniture size circuits for living environments. This family of chips represent about the most complication I want to consider. I could have the largest circuit create symbols through a busy board interface. The symbols would be understood at a human level and could also be monitored by more complex computing processes.


that sounds fascinating!


Thank you. I hope I can get it done.




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