One of the breakthrough moments in computing, which was compelled by necessity, was the advent of symmetric multiprocessor, or SMP, clustering to make two or more processors look and act, as far as the operating system and applications were concerned, as a single, more capacious processor. …
The Power9 processor that IBM is working on in conjunction with hyperscale and HPC customers could be the most important chip that Big Blue has brought to market since the Power4 processor back in 2001. …
Like other makers of supercomputers, the Bull unit of French services and system maker Atos is embracing the new processing technologies coming out of Intel. …
IBM did not just stake the future of its Power chip and the systems business on which it depends on the OpenPower Foundation, a consortium now with 160 members after more than two years of cultivation by Big Blue and its key early partners – Google, Nvidia, Mellanox Technologies, and Tyan. …
The cadence of server processor launches by the remaining companies that still etch their chips has slowed in recent years, starting first with the low-volume players like IBM, Oracle, and Fujitsu and now possibly spreading to Intel with its Xeon line and already baked in with its Xeon Phi line with a roughly three year span between generations. …
Lining up the architectures of future supercomputers is interesting because it gives us a glimpse of what may be in the corporate datacenter many more years out. …
When the OpenPower Foundation was formed a year and a half ago, IBM had a number of reasons, driven by enlightened self-interest, for fostering a partnerships with Google, Nvidia, Mellanox Technologies, and Tyan. …
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