
The Machine: A new kind of computer - k4jh
http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/systems-research/themachine/
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tmikaeld
I've been following The Machine for a while, a try to summarise:

The Machine is unique in that it can stack huge amounts of memory without
communication issues with the CPU because it uses light instead of copper for
transacting data internally. The memory is called Memristors and are
persistent, just like a harddrive/SSD. They are also much faster since they
stack in parallel and can be written/read in parallell, similar to a RAID
setup but with better scaling.

These combinations enable extremely fast speeds to access and process data,
but it also needs a better and faster back-end (Operating System) to handle
the new way of thinking about memory and data processing.

I see a LOT of amazing changes if they manage to launch it.

Like enormous 3D worlds with no texture or model-popping with 4K textures all
in real-time and in VR. Stuff of dreams!

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minthd
One interesting thing: intel has been working for years on light
communications between chips. Why is HP launching this first and not intel ?

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tmikaeld
My guess is that Intel will actually reach usability first by going the
traditional route and have it "compatible" with current operating systems.

This way they will be first to market with a directly usable platform, while
in the meantime work on a new OS or fork one of their existing platforms (Like
Tizen) and adapt it for this new tech.

Though this will depend on a compatible Linux kernel and i see this as the
part taking the longest time!

~~~
nl
I'd expect "The Machine" to ship as a specialised coprocessor machine first.

There are users right now who'd pay $^7 for in-memory like performance over
datasets too big for traditional memory (eg graph processing).

That will avoid the problem of low yield with the new technology which can be
a problem for consumer products where a higher volume is needed.

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discardorama
Highest discussion thread, from 6 months ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7878949](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7878949)

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dang
Thanks. Since these are really the same story with two different URLs, we're
demoting this one as a dupe.

See the FAQ (linked to at the bottom of most pages) for the policy on dupes
and reposts.

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Animats
Is there a decent article on the architecture of this thing? All I can find is
PR.

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keypusher
If this doesn't work out, it's probably the last Big Idea to come out of HP
for a long time.

Here's a blog post with some more detail about the project beyond just hype:

[http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Cloud-Source-Blog/The-
Machine-a...](http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/Cloud-Source-Blog/The-Machine-a-
view-of-the-future-of-computing/ba-p/164568#.U8W9SfldU3I)

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themartorana
I can't load the page, but read the Readability cached copy.

Not sure this says much. That said, a shakeup in the computer market is ok
with me. Things are getting faster I suppose, but SSDs are the most
revolutionary thing to happen in PCs for a long time (at least in terms of
bang-for-buck performance).

Although I can't tell if this is for servers or PCs.

"embed security control points throughout the hardware and software stacks"

This is the only part that feels questionable - UEFI hasn't been met with much
happiness in the community. So this would need to be pretty open to be happily
accepted.

Edit: what's with the down-votes?

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andrewfong
If I recall correctly, the "big idea" here was to eliminate the distinction
between RAM and disk. That would be huge for both servers and PCs.

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crudbug
I love this part :

"We’re pushing the boundaries.., using electrons for computation, photons for
communication, and ions for storage."

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randomtree
I wonder if there is a release schedule? The last time I read about it, it was
far from prototype.

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hyperbovine
If the engineering effort is anything like the focus grouping effort, it
should be amazing.

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danpalmer
tldr: 'The Machine' is a concept, to have servers with SSDs and more memory
and CPU cache, connected by Fibre cables.

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fwilliams
This is categorically false. The machine is a new computer architecture which
merges storage and memory. It is a demonstration of memristors, hardware used
to implement low-latency byte-addressable persistent memory.

SOURCE: I work at HP-Labs writing systems software for the machine.

~~~
danpalmer
I apologise for interpreting it incorrectly, but I do think the marketing is
very misleading, mostly because of the excessive use of buzzwords, and lack of
technical details.

Do you have any links to research papers or technical blog posts, etc?

