The ''Teramac'' was an experimental massively

parallel computer Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different for ...

designed by HP in the 1990s. The name reflected the project's vision to provide a programmable gate array system with capacity for a million gates running at a megahertz. Contrary to traditional systems, which are useless if there is ''one'' defect, Teramac used defective

processors Processor may refer to: Computing Hardware * Processor (computing) ** Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program *** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit ( ...

-- intentionally -- to demonstrate its defect-tolerant architecture. Even though the computer had 220,000 hardware defects, it was able to perform some tasks 100 times faster than a single-processor high-end

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or computational science, scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating syste ...

. Teramac was originally developed by scientists in HP's central research lab,

HP Labs HP Labs is the exploratory and advanced research group for HP Inc. HP Labs' headquarters is in Palo Alto, California and the group has research and development facilities in Bristol, UK. The development of programmable desktop calculators, ink ...

, in the mid 1990s. Although it contained conventional silicon

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

technology, it paved the way for some of HP's work in

nanoelectronics Nanoelectronics refers to the use of nanotechnology in electronic components. The term covers a diverse set of devices and materials, with the common characteristic that they are so small that inter-atomic interactions and quantum mechanical ...

because it provided an architecture on which a chemically assembled computer could operate. The experience from this program was used to design the

Field Programmable Nanowire Interconnect Field Programmable Nanowire Interconnect (often abbreviated FPNI) is a new computer architecture developed by Hewlett-Packard. This is a defect-tolerant architecture, using the results of the Teramac experiment. Technology The design combines a ...

circuit.

Further reading