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HPE Powers Up The Machine Architecture with ARM
- 1024core 10y agoWasn't "The Machine" (whoever came up with that name should be whipped with a wet noodle) supposed to have memristors? I skimmed the description, but didn't see any mention of this having memristors, just conventional DIMMs.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoActually it has a very large shared non-volatile memory. HP felt memristors would be a great way to make that memory but as it is pointed out in the article you can make it with regular DRAM and leaving the power on, or with Intel/Micron's cross point (Optane) NV-Dimm tech.
- JohnJamesRambo 10y agoFrom what I have read, the memristors were the goal but they just aren't ready yet. Rather than wait, they implemented The Machine with what is available now.
- outworlder 10y agoIt was. Then again, it's been a few years. In the meantime, other forms of non-volatile memory became cheaper.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoMy idea of a vacation would be playing with this thing. In looking at variations in systems architecture I see this as the opposite extreme of Google's "shared nothing" architecture. There is probably a PhD thesis in developing a calculus that can transform an algorithm P from one to the other architecture.
- arcanus 10y ago> There is probably a PhD thesis in developing a calculus that can transform an algorithm P from one to the other architecture. Far more than a single thesis. That is a grand challenge problem.
- Arcanum-XIII 10y agoSince it seem that they're showing working prototype, does it mean the wider world will get some hand on too ? (not the layman of course...) Would be a fun toy to tinker with !
- gumby 10y agoThe article, like most, makes a big deal about the (not yet really extant) memristers but the other interesting technical advance in this device is the optical interface (optical-to-the-die interface) which is only discussed in passing in this article. That alone could potentially carry HPe, which is good since what else could?
- wmf 10y agoEvery company is working on that optical stuff and it keeps getting delayed. It could only save HPE if they get it working and their competitors don't.
- new299 10y agoThey spend 9 paragraphs discussing it, and other aspects of the optical system. I think it's pretty neat. I'm mostly skeptical because commodity compute has led HPC for so long. Novel architectures are often quite interesting, but feel like they only have a performance advantage for short periods of time. It looks like a neat system though, and I'm sure many of the ideas will trickle down into commodity hardware eventually. It's great that HP are still doing this kind of stuff.