The Synputer is novel a MIMD (Multiple Instruction Multiple Data) parallel processor that combines data-flow and control-flow paradigms in a single architecture, which supports task-, thread- and, instruction-level parallelism. The architecture has been invented by Nikolay Streltsov, and is currently being developed and marketed by SYCS, a Copenhagen based start-up with development offices in St. Petersburg and in Copenhagen.

The Synputer targets compute intensive signal and media processing applications and it is intended for use in embedded systems and systems-on-chip.

The individual processors are identical and each processor is a complete 16/32-bit fixed-point processor that includes a CPU and separate program- and data memories. Communication between the processors is provided by a novel and patented communication fabric, called a switchboard, which is based on data-flow concepts. The name “Synputer” hints at the synergetic interaction between processors, which characterize the operation of the machine. Being a MIMD type machine, the Synputer offers more flexibility and generality than traditional SIMD or VLIW type architectures where parallelism is restricted to certain combinations of operations. The result is a scalable and efficient parallel processor that is fully transparent and hence easy to use for the programmer/compiler.

The Synputer is supported by a variety software development tools including a parallelizing ANSI C-compiler, a visual assembler and, a debugging and simulation environment.

The talk will introduce the architecture and, more briefly, the software tools that are available for programming the machine.