sounds like their demonstrator models were fpga based. an fpga is essentially a processor with a user definable architecture. its an array of 1-bit logic cells that you can wire together in any configuration you want. string 8 in paralell you got an 8 bit adder, 16 for a 16 bit adder. change some inputs around and they can do bit ops, do a number of them in sequence you can do multipliers, fpus, etc. you "program" (though technically you arent really programming it so much as wiring the logic units together to make your own instruction set) it with a hardware descriptor language of sorts. its something i want to play around with but its out of my price range. ive seen a lot of them used in diy and oshw video projects. for a company developing a cpu/gpu/whatever, it provides a nice way to proto your architecture and optimize it before you start doping your own wafers. though in many cases you can just use the fpga in the final product.
