The design of the MGAP-2: A micro-grained massively parallel array

The Micro-Grain Array Processor-2 (MGAP-2) is a two-dimensional SIMD array of 49 152 fine-grain processors designed primarily for high-performance sig nal and image processing. Each processor can compute two arbitrary three-in put Boolean functions, contains local RAM, and has additional logic for int erprocessor communication. The MGAP-2 differs from existing fine-grain arra ys in that it has a high degree of integration while incorporating processo r level interconnect control. Each processor can independently select its c ommunication direction. This allows a programmer to map algorithms onto the array in a more efficient manner than if the processors communicated in th e standard SIMD fashion. Also, the MGAP-2's processor level interconnect al lows groups of processors to be clustered into larger computational units, making the basic computational units as powerful as they need to be for a g iven problem.