terminus

What the article doesn't mention is how the errors are detected -- in a fool proof fashion and cheaply. I can think of error detection schemes that might be cheap to implement but are not foolproof. For instance for an integer multiplication the parity might be cheap to calculate (and without redoing the whole calculation.)

Thus, the error detection algorithm checks the actual parity with the "correct" parity. That of course falls down for multi bit errors.

Researching the literature a bit:

A different approach (tradeoff precision for power) in GPUs: Energy-precision tradeoffs in mobile Graphics Processing Units (http://iccd.et.tudelft.nl/2008/proceedings/060pool.pdf). Another one (probabilistic chips): http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/20246/.

Edit: Added more detail, formatting.

AFAIK booting into OtherOS renders the GPU inaccessible. The cell processor (PowerPC core and the SPEs) is still fully usable.

Interesting comment on the rationale for Linux support on PS3: http://kotaku.com/comment/21054663/

A detailed (maybe too detailed) look at the interaction between Hierarchies of Memory and CPUS. Memory Systems: Cache, Memory, Disk [ http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Systems-Cache-DRAM-Disk/dp/0123... ]

Yeah I know, Shift+PG[up, down] not being usable is kinda a bummer but as a bonus you can use / to search the scrollback buffer plus all the vi movement keys are available.