x 1 000

Modern PCs have a processor with two, four or sometimes 16 cores to carry out tasks, but the central processing unit (CPU) above, developed by the researchers effectively had 1 000 cores on a single chip.  The chip was able to process around five gigabytes of data per second in testing- making it approximately 20 times faster than modern computers.

Scientists used a chip called a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which contains millions of transistors, but these new chips can be configured into specific circuits by the user, rather than their function being set at a factory.  This enabled the team to divide up the transistors within the chip into small groups and ask each to perform a different task.  By creating more than 1 000 mini-circuits within the FPGA chip, the researchers effectively turned the chip into a 1 000-core processor, with each core working on its own instructions.

Brilliant- and I want one right now.