Absolute times to calculate a fixed range of the Mandelbrot set:

Machine Concurrency Language Time

Dual-Opteron Singlethreaded C# \~0.81

Dual-Opteron Multithreaded C# \~0.45

Dual-Opteron Singlethreaded C++ \~0.50

Dual-Opteron Multithreaded C++ \~0.38

XBox 360 Singlethreaded C# \~4.4

XBox 360 Multithreaded C# \~2.1

XBox 360\ GPU …

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Ah, that's more like it. This is a graph of duration (in seconds) versus the number of threads during a calculation of a Mandelbrot set using the XNA Framework on the XBox 360 (Neil: The previous graph was …

Properly chastised by Neil Bartlett for not labeling my Y Axis on a graph, I added such a title to my next attempt. I then cut-and-pasted that image, which resulted in this being pasted into my blog editor:

And yet, I had already typed the Axis Title, as this screen …

UPDATE: See this new post ~~It looks like XNA does not distribute processing across the multiple cores of the 360:~~

This is identical code (a Mandelbrot calculation of a fixed size) running with multiple threads. While my desktop machine speeds up with more threads (peaking at 3), the XBox 360 …

Sweet. Stay tuned for performance benchmarks, concurrency and GPGPU programming experiments on the 360, and maybe even some games...Maybe even a domain-specific language for writing board games.

As far as I can tell, the only mistake he made is charging way too little (\$19.99) and admitting his age. Other than that, ANTLR Studio for Eclipse looks professional as all get-out.

Microsoft has released-to-manufacture Microsoft Robotics Studio (via Dan Fernandez).

\<a href="http://www.knowing.net/images/MicrosoftRoboticStudioRTMs_BA78/image02.png"" atomicselection="true">We got a Roomba as an early Christmas present and I gotta' tell you, it's won over my extremely-skeptical wife. My least favorite chore is sweeping our long, steep …

\<a href="http://www.knowing.net/images/WhatHappensWhenYouDrinkACoke_B318/image06.png"" atomicselection="true">John Montgomery points to this interesting article on the physical effects of Coca Cola. (Short version: you get a sugar spike, one more potent than you could stand if the taste of sugar wasn't cut by the use …

Here's a scholarly, but clearly written, article on a generalized algorithm for implementing dataflow using shared memory. Dataflow is a very intuitive calculation model (think "spreadsheet"). When I saw this paper I thought "Wasn't it known that dataflow could be automatically parallelized?" but maybe not. One way or the other …

Sadly, it sounds all artsy-fartsy with the blimps moving towards sound or somesuch. Sigh. If your autonomous blimps can detect and move towards sound, at least let paint the target with a laser sighting device to instill an appropriate feeling of dread.

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