Andy Patrizio
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Andy Patrizio
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NEC claims new vector processor speeds data processing 50-fold
It seems more vendors are looking beyond the x86 architecture for the big leaps in performance needed to power things like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Google and IBM have their processor projects, Nvidia and AMD are positioning their GPUs as an alternative, and now Japan’s NEC has announced a vector processor accelerates that data processing by more than a factor of 50 compared to the Apache Spark cluster-computing framework. + Also on Network World: NVM Express spec updated for data-intensive operations + The company said its vector processor, called the Aurora Vector Engine, leverages “sparse matrix” data structures to accelerate processor performance in executing machine learning tasks. Vector-based computers are basically supercomputers built specifically to handle large scientific and engineering calculations. Cray used to build them in previous decades before shifting to x86 processors. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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NEC claims new vector processor speeds data processing 50-fold
It seems more vendors are looking beyond the x86 architecture for the big leaps in performance needed to power things like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Google and IBM have their processor projects, Nvidia and AMD are positioning their GPUs as an alternative, and now Japan’s NEC has announced a vector processor accelerates that data processing by more than a factor of 50 compared to the Apache Spark cluster-computing framework. + Also on Network World: NVM Express spec updated for data-intensive operations + The company said its vector processor, called the Aurora Vector Engine, leverages “sparse matrix” data structures to accelerate processor performance in executing machine learning tasks. Vector-based computers are basically supercomputers built specifically to handle large scientific and engineering calculations. Cray used to build them in previous decades before shifting to x86 processors. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Big buyouts hit the enterprise market, BMC and Bain eye companies
The leveraged buyout of Dell that resulted in its merger with EMC and the computer giant going private was the first of what appears to be many similar moves. Private equity firms are looking to gobble up some of the enterprise giants and in the process, take them private.BMC Software, which develops IT services software and data center automation software, among many other products, is looking to merge with CA, formerly Computer Associates. BMC is owned by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital, so any deal to acquire CA would take the company off the public market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Big buyouts hit the enterprise market, BMC and Bain eye companies
The leveraged buyout of Dell that resulted in its merger with EMC and the computer giant going private was the first of what appears to be many similar moves. Private equity firms are looking to gobble up some of the enterprise giants and in the process, take them private.BMC Software, which develops IT services software and data center automation software, among many other products, is looking to merge with CA, formerly Computer Associates. BMC is owned by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital, so any deal to acquire CA would take the company off the public market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft rumor: Company to reorganize cloud computing division
Multiple news outlets in Seattle and the tech press report that Microsoft plans to announce a significant reorganization in an effort to refocus its cloud computing division. In the process, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.The Seattle Times, Puget Sound Business Journal, Bloomberg and TechCrunch all cite sources claiming that the news could come this week, and that could mean layoffs in the thousands. RELATED: How a giant like GE found a home in the cloud The Seattle Times said it was unclear what groups would be affected and where they are located but that the move would be to get its sales teams to emphasize its cloud computing products instead of pushing packaged software. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Microsoft rumor: Company to reorganize cloud computing division
Multiple news outlets in Seattle and the tech press report that Microsoft plans to announce a significant reorganization in an effort to refocus its cloud computing division. In the process, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs.The Seattle Times, Puget Sound Business Journal, Bloomberg and TechCrunch all cite sources claiming that the news could come this week, and that could mean layoffs in the thousands. RELATED: How a giant like GE found a home in the cloud The Seattle Times said it was unclear what groups would be affected and where they are located but that the move would be to get its sales teams to emphasize its cloud computing products instead of pushing packaged software. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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NVM Express spec updated for data-intensive operations
This is another one of those geeky stories that actually has some significance. The Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Express group has issued version 1.3 of its SSD spec, with emphasis on performance around analytics and virtualization. NVMe is a communications interface/protocol designed specifically for solid-state drives (SSDs) because the old standard, SATA, was a relic of the hard disk days and nowhere near fast enough to provide proper throughput for flash memory. The NVM Express organization consists of storage and flash vendors such as Intel, Samsung, Sandisk, Dell EM, and Seagate. NVMe works with the M.2 and PCI Express buses, which are considerably faster than SATA. For example, it can handle 65,000 queues instead of one like in SATA, which is idea for a server environment where there is a lot of I/O. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cray adds big data software to its supercomputers
Cray has announced a new suite of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) software called Urika-XC for its top-of-the-line XC Series of supercomputers. Urika-XC is a set of analytics software that will let XC customers use Apache Spark, Intel’s BigDL deep learning library, Cray’s Urika graph analytics engine, and an assortment of Python-based data science tools.With the Urika-XC software suite, analytics and AI workloads can run alongside scientific modeling and simulations on Cray XC supercomputers, eliminating the need to move data between systems. Cray XC customers will be able to run converged analytics and simulation workloads across a variety of scientific and commercial endeavors, such as real-time weather forecasting, predictive maintenance, precision medicine and comprehensive fraud detection. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cray adds big data software to its supercomputers
Cray has announced a new suite of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) software called Urika-XC for its top-of-the-line XC Series of supercomputers. Urika-XC is a set of analytics software that will let XC customers use Apache Spark, Intel’s BigDL deep learning library, Cray’s Urika graph analytics engine, and an assortment of Python-based data science tools.With the Urika-XC software suite, analytics and AI workloads can run alongside scientific modeling and simulations on Cray XC supercomputers, eliminating the need to move data between systems. Cray XC customers will be able to run converged analytics and simulation workloads across a variety of scientific and commercial endeavors, such as real-time weather forecasting, predictive maintenance, precision medicine and comprehensive fraud detection. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Ireland the best place to set up a data center in the EU
A report from a data center consulting group BroadGroup says Ireland is the best place, at least in Europe, to set up a data center. It cites connectivity, taxes and active government support among the reasons.BroadGroup’s report argued Ireland’s status in the EU, as well as its “low corporate tax environment,” make it an attractive location. It also cites connectivity, as Ireland will get a direct submarine cable system from Ireland to France—bypassing the U.K.—in 2019. The country also has a high installed base of fibre and dark fibre with further deployment planned.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Ireland the best place to set up a data center in the EU
A report from a data center consulting group BroadGroup says Ireland is the best place, at least in Europe, to set up a data center. It cites connectivity, taxes and active government support among the reasons.BroadGroup’s report argued Ireland’s status in the EU, as well as its “low corporate tax environment,” make it an attractive location. It also cites connectivity, as Ireland will get a direct submarine cable system from Ireland to France—bypassing the U.K.—in 2019. The country also has a high installed base of fibre and dark fibre with further deployment planned.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Epyc win for AMD in the server security battle
While everyone is talking about the impressive performance potential and scale of AMD’s new Epyc server chips, overlooked in all the hoopla are the security features of the chip that may prove just as appealing.To start off, there is the tag team of Secure Memory Encryption (SME) and Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV). Secure Memory Encryption allows for full encryption of data stored in DRAM, and SEV allows individual virtual machines to be assigned a unique cryptographic key, thus isolating them from each other as well as the OS hypervisor and administrator layer. These functions are based on a hardware security processor attached to the memory controller with a 128-bit AES encryption engine.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Epyc win for AMD in the server security battle
While everyone is talking about the impressive performance potential and scale of AMD’s new Epyc server chips, overlooked in all the hoopla are the security features of the chip that may prove just as appealing.To start off, there is the tag team of Secure Memory Encryption (SME) and Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV). Secure Memory Encryption allows for full encryption of data stored in DRAM, and SEV allows individual virtual machines to be assigned a unique cryptographic key, thus isolating them from each other as well as the OS hypervisor and administrator layer. These functions are based on a hardware security processor attached to the memory controller with a 128-bit AES encryption engine.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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DOE taps 6 firms for exascale computing research
The Department of Energy has awarded six tech firms a total of $258 million in funding for research and development into exascale computing. The move comes as the U.S. is falling behind in the world of top supercomputers.Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced that AMD, Cray, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Intel and Nvidia will receive financial support from the Department of Energy over the course of a three-year period. The funding will finance research and development in three main areas: hardware technology, software technology and application development.Each company will provide 40 percent of the overall project cost in addition to the government funding. The plan is for one of those companies to be able to deliver an exascale-capable supercomputer by 2021. It’s part of the DOE’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP), which in turn is part of its new PathForward program, designed to accelerate the research necessary to deploy the nation’s first exascale supercomputers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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DOE taps 6 firms for exascale computing research
The Department of Energy has awarded six tech firms a total of $258 million in funding for research and development into exascale computing. The move comes as the U.S. is falling behind in the world of top supercomputers.Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced that AMD, Cray, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Intel and Nvidia will receive financial support from the Department of Energy over the course of a three-year period. The funding will finance research and development in three main areas: hardware technology, software technology and application development.Each company will provide 40 percent of the overall project cost in addition to the government funding. The plan is for one of those companies to be able to deliver an exascale-capable supercomputer by 2021. It’s part of the DOE’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP), which in turn is part of its new PathForward program, designed to accelerate the research necessary to deploy the nation’s first exascale supercomputers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Qualcomm partners with Packet to offer ARM servers
Qualcomm has its first customer for the 48-core ARM server processor it currently has under development. Packet, a bare-metal cloud provider for developers, said it plans to offer customers access to Qualcomm’s Centriq 2400 later this year.Packet offers a bare-metal cloud platform for developers running Cavium's 48-core ARMv8-A ThunderX processors. A bare-metal solution means it offers no OS or any operating platform. You have to provide all of the software. It’s not a popular option; only IBM’s SoftLayer offers bare-metal in any significant way. But it’s ideal for a developer. They can load their entire development or operating environment onto Packet’s systems and have a realistic development and testing environment that matches their future deployment platform. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Data center startup offers compute colo at cell towers
Vapor IO, an Austin-based data center technology startup, is launching a rather interesting collocation business by offering leased data center capacity at cellular network towers. The company’s argument is that it should offer compute and network capabilities together for maximum edge computing.The service, called Project Volutus, includes everything from site selection to rack space, power, connectivity, infrastructure management software, and remote hands. The company believes that the need for edge computing capacity will increase as things like IoT, connected and autonomous cars, augmented and virtual reality, and 5G wireless come to market and start scaling.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Data center startup offers compute colo at cell towers
Vapor IO, an Austin-based data center technology startup, is launching a rather interesting collocation business by offering leased data center capacity at cellular network towers. The company’s argument is that it should offer compute and network capabilities together for maximum edge computing.The service, called Project Volutus, includes everything from site selection to rack space, power, connectivity, infrastructure management software, and remote hands. The company believes that the need for edge computing capacity will increase as things like IoT, connected and autonomous cars, augmented and virtual reality, and 5G wireless come to market and start scaling.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cavium makes its ARM for data centers push with new servers
The initial efforts to bring ARM-based processors in the data center were not terribly successful. Calxeda crashed and burned spectacularly after it bet on a 32-bit processor when the rest of the world had moved on to 64-bits. And HPE initially wanted to base its Project Moonshot servers on ARM but now uses Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron.That’s because the initial uses for ARM processors were low-performance applications, like basic LAMP stacks, file and print, and storage. Instead, one company has been quietly building momentum for high performance ARM processors, and it’s not Qualcomm.Cavium, a company steeped in MIPS-based embedded processors, is bringing its considerable experience and IP to the ARM processor with its ThunderX server ecosystem. ThunderX is the whole shootin’ match, an ARMv8-A 64-bit SoC plus motherboards, both single and dual socket. In addition to hardware, Cavium offers operating systems, development environments, tools, and applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cavium makes its ARM for data centers push with new servers
The initial efforts to bring ARM-based processors in the data center were not terribly successful. Calxeda crashed and burned spectacularly after it bet on a 32-bit processor when the rest of the world had moved on to 64-bits. And HPE initially wanted to base its Project Moonshot servers on ARM but now uses Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron.That’s because the initial uses for ARM processors were low-performance applications, like basic LAMP stacks, file and print, and storage. Instead, one company has been quietly building momentum for high performance ARM processors, and it’s not Qualcomm.Cavium, a company steeped in MIPS-based embedded processors, is bringing its considerable experience and IP to the ARM processor with its ThunderX server ecosystem. ThunderX is the whole shootin’ match, an ARMv8-A 64-bit SoC plus motherboards, both single and dual socket. In addition to hardware, Cavium offers operating systems, development environments, tools, and applications.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here