Among the possible alternatives for nanoscale
architectures of the next decade, fine grain cellular
structures provide the highest storage access
bandwidths while delivering very high peak
performance per unit die area. They also provide very
high bi-section bandwidth for nearest neighbor
communication assuming 3-D toroidal mesh
topologies. In addition, cellular structures can operate
asynchronously and under distributed rather than
centralized control both of which is necessary under
projected extremes in latency. With their highly
replicated instantiation of identical elements, they
provide the opportunity for fault tolerance through
graceful degradation, if the necessary fault detection
and fault isolation mechanisms are incorporated.