Parallel Processing for Embedded Systems
Multi-computer chips from GreenArrays offer an unrivaled combination of great computing power, small size, low energy consumption, and high value. They are simple, practical, versatile, and affordable. These chips change the game, enabling new embedded applications in a massively parallel world.
We are here to help you develop products that leverage this ground-breaking technology into a commanding position in your market.
multi-computer vs. multi-core architecture
Latest developments:
As of 1 May 2024, we have completed the process of moving our headquarters offices and lab from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to rural Northern Missouri. This is a particularly healthy part of the United States, in which we may operate more sustainably than is possible in a city such as even Cheyenne whose increasing urbanization and expansion seem to proceed without regard for the quality of life conducive to balanced, creative thinking. One exciting aspect of our new location is that we anticipate meeting many youngsters who would like to learn how to design and program chips such as ours without having to leave the pleasant environments in which they were raised. Relatively minor hiccups are likely as our facilities and processes adjust, but the website is up again and we are ready to resume taking orders and delivering products. None of our contact information has changed other than the physical address of headquarters.
One small example:
144 fully fledged computers.
Just one chip.
This gem is our GA144 multi-computer chip. It is designed to give you options that have never before existed and to place them under your control by writing software.
- With 144 independent computers, it enables parallel or pipelined programming on an unprecedented scale. Map a data flow diagram or an analog block diagram onto its array of computers for continuous processes without interrupts or context switching.
- With instruction times as low as 1400 picoseconds and consuming as little as 7 picojoules of energy, each of the 144 computers can do its work with unprecedented speed for a microcontroller and yet at unprecedentedly low energy cost, transitioning between running and suspended states in gate delay times. When suspended, each of the computers uses less than 100 nanowatts.
- With completely programmable I/O pins, transitions between driving high, driving low, weak pull-down and high impedance can be made under software control in nanoseconds. This permits bit-banging on an unprecedented scale, yet the input impedance of each pin is higher, and circuit loading less, than many expensive FET probes. Add to that the ability to devote one or more very high-speed computers to each pin, and you have true software-defined I/O with unprecedented attentiveness to each pin when it is desired.
- With multilevel programming you may choose between very fast, very simple programs in microcode, or working in a high level language using external memory, or various methods in between, trading off speed against complexity; and you may mix these techniques in an application, building your own clusters of computers or nodes to produce architectures with "hosts" and "coprocessors" as your application demands.
When your product requirements include responsiveness and computational power but with energy limitations, this superb chip is ideal. Use it right out of the box for prototyping and development; as your end product matures, GreenArrays will rapidly configure custom chips to further minimize both the cost and energy consumption of your product.
It's part of the package:
arrayForth® Developer Tools
Our software development tools are available free of charge to our customers. Collectively called arrayForth, they are the foundation of our proprietary CAD system used for chip design. It includes assembler/compiler, example source code including all ROM on each chip, a full software-level simulator for each chip, and an Interactive Development Environment for use with real chips. arrayForth will always be the gold-standard software for working with our chips, so we feel we owe it to our customers to give it to them. Free.
Engineering Support
It can be lonely at the front of the pack. But we will stand beside you throughout the development process — to support our product and to see your project through to a successful deployment.
Complete Documentation
We share what we know — and not just about the hardware and the development system. We provide enough information that you can even implement your own development tools, if you wish. That's fine with us. (But we think you'll find our tool set very convincing, it's built around the same tools we use to create these chips!)
Online Courseware
To supplement our written documentation, the arrayForth Institute provides free online learning experiences.
Online Customer Support
Customer Support Central provides notifications of up-to-date documentation and software, as well as links to direct, personal online support for our customers.