Interesting hardware and computer intellect

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Dave McGuire wrote:
>>> The recent discussion on interesting system architectures
>>> triggered a memory I have of a documentary on TV somewhere
>>> (Discovery? TechTV? PBS?) on evolvable hardware. There was some
>>> intrigue in the episode, on investors accusing researchers of bad
>>> faith, or lying, or a scam. Hardware was built, I'm pretty sure
>>> it was the CAM-Brain, and it was used quite a bit before the 
>>> company that built it went under (It may have been Genobyte along
>>>  with ATR, but I remember the company being based out of England)
>>>  Anyways, this definitely counts as "interesting" hardware. An
>>> FPGA based computer that optimizes it's own logic based on a
>>> given problem. The CAM-Brain was built, as was an FPGA engine
>>> built by HP, and another in Japan somewhere. Here are some links
>>> if anyone is interested:
>> 
>> I had an idea like this once.  It involved an FPGA executing
>> bytecodes in microcode, and loading gate configurations from ROM
>> for often-used bytecodes as it ran.
> 
> Sorta like a Just-In-Time "compiler" for hardware configurations?

Exactly.  JIT-optimizing processor.

Peace...  Sridhar