Posted on 06/12/2014 9:06:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
HP demonstrated on Wednesday a breakthrough computer project from HP Labs known internally as "The Machine." The new computer was the highlight of a keynote speech by CEO Meg Whitman and CTO Martin Fink, the head of HP Labs, at the company's HP Discover customer conference being held this week in Las Vegas.
The Machine is a project that, if successful, could replace a giant data center worth of gear with a computer the size of a refrigerator, reports Businessweek's Ashlee Vance.
More importantly, it will instantly process mind-boggling amounts of data while sipping only a tiny bit of energy. Whitman says the machine will mean "energy consumption problems will virtually disappear" for data centers.
That compares to today, where if cloud computing were a country, in terms of energy consumption, it would rank fifth in the world, Whitman says.
Basically, the machine uses a new homegrown operating system, a new superfast way to transfer data that uses light (i.e. photonics) instead of the copper wiring traditionally used by Ethernet cables and a whole new kind of memory called "memristors."
A memristor is a type of memory that HP says is faster and more efficient than flash memory. Its claim to fame is that it doesn't lose data even when a device loses power or runs out of battery. HP isn't the only company working on these technologies, although it is a particular pioneer on the science of memristors.
Assembling all of these brand new technologies into a new type of computer is almost a "Back To The Future" type of strategy.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Too big. I want one that does all this that fits in my pocket.
Just what the NSA needs.
LMAO!
And then Skynet became self aware....
I mean we already have Big Dog and HK type drones...what could go wrong? ;)
Honestly, I can’t fit anymore in my fridge.
[ And then Skynet became self aware....
I mean we already have Big Dog and HK type drones...what could go wrong? ;) ]
Just give me a way to data dump a copy of my Brain’s memory ingrams into this thing...
That way I can post here at twice the rate.
Patience...coming soon!
I’d love it. Then I could torment the Cheshires all the more with random acts of conservative philosophy ;)
I'm more curious about that than I am about the hardware.
How do you know? HP owns a stable of main frame class operating systems now: openVMS, Tandem Himalaya, Ultrix, the HP version of Unix (whatever that was). They are capable of cranking out something a little more substantial than BSD.
Just make sure nobody's inside when they flip the switch.......
to provide the computing capacity of an entire data center in a single rack would mean at least 100x better then the current tech
that seems a bit far fetched
I think they are not taking into consideration switches, routers and other comms gear. But strictly from virtualization, disk and the OS that runs it, why not?
I have “one rack” in my data center with 120tb of storage capacity and the servers to carve it all up.
They have a server system now that is enclosed in a POD size container.
They bring it in on the back of a truck, drop it off in the parking lot, run some cables to it and away it goes. Can be hooked up in parallel with other PODs.
The thing that gets me, no mechanical cooling of the PODs. I used to be in the business and can’t get my mind around that.
And I'm pretty sure that system isn't running VMS. ;)
It doesn’t matter. Microsoft will find a way to bloat it up and then toss the OS for the next version, released one a year until the one that worked is 4 versions back, and then tweak it to only run on a new box.
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