[Tyler]

K Core Processors
     

Intel is hinting at the possibility of a future with

processors containing hundreds or even thousands of cores.  
While graphics applications seem to be driving much of this trend,
I see the possibilities for robotics as truly monumental.
Software development for real-time response and control of
actuators and sensors has always been a bit awkward with
asynchronous interrupts bumping into each-other and cumbersome
state machine loops.  A possible solution to this mess, and
to a much-needed advancement in robot performance are
multiple processor systems with additional processors providing
centralized supervisory control.  When that trend takes hold, a programmer
will be able to instruct a mobility routine to approach the
refrigerator using a group of processors dedicated
to that task, and not risk crashing the battery monitoring
routines in the process.  It seems to me that the trend is more towards
a massively
parallel array of much simpler processors - something between
neural networks of biological systems and the overburdened,
highly complex, single-processor systems of today.
Processors of the giant array can be simpler, slower and die without
bringing down the whole system.  The result will be a faster and more
fault-tolerant system that is easier to program, and even cheaper to
produce.
   

http://robots.net/article/2579.html