I want a good parallel computer [video]

This is a talk I gave at UC Santa Cruz in April. I also have a half-finished blog post where I intended to go into more detail, but I'm posting this now because I hope it can provoke some interesting discussion. I'll put a little more context here, and I'm also happy to answer questions.

One of the main things I can't do in the current graphics API is run a 2D renderer within bounded memory, at least without having a fence and readback to the CPU, which could tank performance. The underlying problem can do it, but you need to be able to dynamically dispatch the various parts of the problem and use queues to connect the pieces, which compute shaders can't do. The recent development of work graphs can do queues and bounded memory, but can't sustain the ordering guarantees you need for correct 2D rendering.

I'm more bullish on work graphs now, especially after attending HPG[1] and seeing the two work graph talks there. However, they need more baking; the current version is still pretty limited.

Another thing missing from this talk is to go deeper into the Cell architecture. I think that's every bit as relevant as Larrabee. A great introduction is Copetti's site[2].

[1]: https://www.highperformancegraphics.org/2024/program/index.h...

[2]: https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/playstation-3/