[Cryptography] massively parallel processing

[Henry Baker]

At 03:48 PM 9/14/2016, John Denker wrote:
>On 09/14/2016 10:00 AM, Henry Baker wrote:
>
>> The multiprocessor revolution is just beginning to take off; I can
>> recall my first computer (IBM 1401) with 4,000 (not 4096!)
>> "characters" of RAM; we're nearly to the point where a consumer can
>> purchase a computer with 4,000 *processors*.
>
>You can get GPU cards with more than 2000 cores per card.  For
>bitcoin mining, or for physics simulations -- or for "consumer"
>applications such as fancy graphics -- you might plug in two or
>more such cards, at which point you're already well over 4000
>processors in a single "computer".

The following new nVidia computer may give new meaning to
"war-driving"; air-cracking your neighboring auto wifi's &
drivers' cellphones while you wait for each red light.

(The *idle* cycles of the computers on self-driving cars
have enormous computational power.  Forget SETI for idle
cycles; do bitcoin mining and/or password cracking.)

http://fortune.com/2016/09/13/nvidia-ai-computer-baidu-car/

Nvidia Shows Off New AI Computer For Baidu's Self-Driving Car

U.S. chipmaker Nvidia nvda showed off on Monday a smaller and more efficient artificial intelligence computer for self-driving cars, saying it would power Baidu's bidu mapping and autonomous vehicle technology.

Chinese web services company Baidu will deploy Nvidia's new Drive PX 2 as its in-vehicle car computer for its self-driving system, Nvidia said in a press release as it unveiled the computer at the GPU Technology Conference in Beijing.

As more carmakers develop plans for self-driving technology to roll out in their vehicles in the next decade or less, Nvidia is trying to lower the barriers to entry, providing powerful computers to help automakers enter the market.

Earlier this month, Nvidia and Baidu announced a partnership to develop a full self-driving car architecture from the cloud to the vehicle using both companies' expertise in artificial intelligence (AI).

Nvidia said its new Drive PX 2 computer uses 10 watts of power and is half the size of the original version, launched in January.  That solves a problem faced by carmakers incorporating self-driving technology -- how to pack the punch of AI, which helps cars make decisions, into a compact computer suitable for production-ready vehicles.