Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:19 pm
We didn't do much in terms of hardware at uni (and it was all MIPS RISC architecture based), but IMO the strategies used in pipelines to detect, avoid or correct deadlocking are some of the most interesting bits in the subject.That article is a good read - I've always found the whole concept and implementation of parallel processing fascinating.
I was aware of the existing parallel processing in video (and audio) rendering from reading all about SLI/crossfire techniques, where the GPU input from the CPU basically consists of "stuff to draw next", and multiple GPUs can take alternate sets of instructions, but I wasn't aware of those finer programming related points. Stuff about deadlock avoidance, bottlenecks and resources etc. Things to look into anyway.
Are you familiar with Brooks subsumption architecture (AI for robots), by any chance? I always found that fascinating.I'm learning C in uni this semester, so hopefully that'll sort at least a bit of it out. I'm doing a mechatronic engineering course at uni, so I expect I'll need to know this stuff to build the robotic legions of do-....granny helper devices I have planned.