New ultra fast processor previewed

Scientists have created an ultra-fast 1,000 core computer processor which could speed up machines and make them greener. Originally, computers were developed with only one core processor, the part of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) which reads and executes instructions.

Nowadays processors with two, four or even 16 cores are commonplace. However, Dr Wim Vanderbauwhede, of the University of Glasgow, and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Lowell have now created a processor which effectively contains more than a thousand cores on a single chip.

To do this, the scientists used a chip called a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which like all microchips contains millions of transistors - the tiny on-off switches which are the foundation of any electronic circuit.

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