“Near-Optimal” Designs

The designs not far from the optimal point are discussed. First, special-purpose GRAPE processors are overviewed. With these processors, the efficiency close to the theoretical limit was actually achieved, albeit for just one application area. Then GRAPE-DR SIMD manycore processor and its applications are discussed in details. The MN-Core processor, which can be regarded as the successor of GRAPE-DR, is also discussed. Finally, how one can use chip-scale SIMD processors for the four major application categories and what functionalities should be added are described, and a reference design is introduced.