Advanced semiconductor and computer manufacturer Adapteva today introduced its Parallella University Program (PUP) for academic institutions that conduct leading parallel programing research and/or education. The program is designed so universities can access inexpensive and open parallel computing hardware. Institutions participating in the PUP program will receive free hardware and developmental software specifically focused on parallel computing. The first offering via the PUP program will be the Parallella-16 computer, Adapteva’s breakthrough credit-card sized multicore processing platform.

To kick off the program, Adapteva is donating one Parallella-16 platform for each 100 units sold via the Adapteva online store. Universities eligible for the PUP must be actively involved in parallel computing research and education.

The Parallella platform, equipped with Adapteva’s energy-efficient Epiphany multicore processor and the Xilinx Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs that includes a dual-core ARM A9 CPU. The whole board is the size of a credit-card, consumes less than 5 Watts under typical workloads and has a $99 entry level price point. Adapteva’s Parallella was launched in a successful Kickstarter campaign in late 2012 and recently opened orders for the general public.

“The present and future of computing is clearly parallel but the world is still struggling with the transition from the serial computing model that has served it well for decades,” said Andreas Olofsson, CEO of Adapteva. “We created the Parallella platform to help make the world’s first open and affordable platform for the development of massively parallel programs. With the Parallella University Program we want to do our part to help accelerate the transition to parallel computing.”

Adapteva invites other companies dedicated to advancing education and research in the area of parallel computing to join the Parallella University Program and match Adapteva’s donation.