The 1980s were a heyday for odd computer architectures; instead of the von Neumann design you’d discover in one of today’s desktop computers or the Harvard design of a microcontroller, a great deal of business experimented with odd parallel designs. While not utilized much today, at the time these were a few of the most powerful computers of their day as well as were utilized as the primary research study tools of the AI renaissance of the 1980s.

Over at the Norwegian university of science as well as innovation a big group of trainees (13 members!) created a contemporary handle the massively parallel computer. It’s called 256 shades of Gray, as well as it processes 320×240 pixel 8-bit grayscale graphics like no microcontroller could.

The concept for the job was to produce an array-based parallel picture processor with an design similar to the Goodyear MPP formerly utilized by NASA or the connection Machine found in the manage space of Jurassic Park. Unlike these earlier computers, the team implemented their variety processor in an FPGA, providing increase to their Lena processor this processor is in turn managed by a 32-bit AVR microcontroller with a custom-build VGA output.

The entire maker can process 10 frames per second of 320×240 resolution grayscale video. There’s a presentation video available (in Norwegian), however the highlight may be their demo of The game of Life rendered in real-time on their computer. An incredible build, as well as a extremely awesome experience for all the members of the class.