cycle of reincarnation

A term coined by Ivan Sutherland ca. 1970 to refer to a

well-known effect whereby function in a computing system

family is migrated out to special-purpose peripheral

hardware for speed, then the peripheral evolves toward more

computing power as it does its job, then somebody notices that

it is inefficient to support two asymmetrical processors in

the architecture and folds the function back into the main

CPU, at which point the cycle begins again.

Several iterations of this cycle have been observed in

graphics-processor (blitter) design, and at least one or

two in communications and floating-point processors. Also

known as "the Wheel of Life", "the Wheel of Samsara" and other

variations of the basic Hindu/Buddhist theological idea.

[Jargon File]

(1994-11-16)