We discuss the work of the QCDSP collaboration to build an inexpensive Teraflop scale massively parallel computer suitable for computations in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The computer is a collection of nodes connected in a four dimensional toroidial grid with nearest neighbor bit serial communications. A node is composed of a Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processor (DSP), memory, and a custom made communications and memory controller chip. An 8192 node computer with a peak speed of 0.4 Teraflops is being constructed at Columbia University for a cost of $1.8 Million. A 12,288-node machine with a peak speed of 0.6 Teraflops is being constructed for the RIKEN Brookhaven Research Center. Other computers have been built including a 50 Gigaflop version for Florida State University.
展开▼