Next Platform TV for July 9, 2020

From Arm server chip market and technology momentum to the future of spin wave computing, as well as some insight about current situation and subsequent (too quick?) shift to the cloud, we have a wide-ranging set of topics. We also get two different perspectives on RISC-V and open hardware, both from a research and development perspective and another on hardening open source cores for industrial and large-scale enterprise use.

A wide-ranging set of interviews for today’s edition. We begin with a detailed interview with Jon Masters, vice president of software at Arm server chip startup Nuvia. For more than a decade, Jon was chief Arm architect at Red Hat, and was instrumental in getting the various Arm chip makers aligned with Linux. We talked about why we need another Arm server chip maker, how much of the server market is actually in play for the Arm architecture – and we teased a few details out about what Nuvia plans to do with its server chip designs.

On a completely different we take a look at spin wave computing and what the opportunities and challenges are as we push closer to the end of Moore’s Law. While indeed, quantum computing is taking a run at some of the same eventual low-power, ultra-efficient use cases, spin wave is a robust concept—and could be more than just theory. We discuss all of this and more with Dr. Sorin Cotofana, who is author of a detailed technical introduction to spin wave.

For today’s program we also spoke with Jeff DeVerter, chief technology officer of products and services at Rackspace, which famously co-founded the OpenStack cloud controller with NASA and was an innovative cloud provider, and has pivoted to provide services on top of all clouds as well as its own. The big question is: Has the coronavirus pandemic caused a mad dash to the cloud? And we also wanted to know is there such a thing as trying to move to the cloud too fast or too wholly?

We also gather two viewpoints about the past, present, and future of open hardware with an emphasis on RISC-V. We talk to Dr. Roger Espasa about the where open hardware could fit in mission-critical business environments and what’s needed to press forward. And for a more focused technology look we talk with Dr. Andrea Bartolini about the future of RISC-V in HPC, mainly about some points he raises here.

Thanks, as always, for tuning in.

Cheat Sheet (Timestamps) 

1:53 – Jon Masters, Arm Server Chip Momentum

16:04 – Spin Wave Computing with Sorin Cotofana

26:45 – Jeff DeVerter, CTO, Rackspace on Cloud Pace with Covid-19

34:06 – Hardening Open Source Cores for Industrial Use with Dr. Roger Espasa

40:11 – RISC-V in HPC and Large-Scale Computing with Andrea Bartolini