Could there be a new supercomputer on the horizon? Hewlett-Packard has recently announced the solution to the ever growing amount of data produced by websites and cloud services. In order to keep up with the massive amount of information generated daily, the need for hardware that can provide adequate storage in a small area is essential. Enter, “The Machine”.
The Machine
The Machine utilizes new memory called “memristors”, a highly dense and fast form of memory, and a new data transfer system using silicon photonics instead of copper wire. These silicon photonics work by sending data via lasers, which will reduce energy use and increase data transfer to approximately 160 petabytes in 250 nanoseconds. Along with this design, HP is also working to create an operating system to manage this new scale.
With this innovation comes secure storage and aggregation of beyond imaginable amounts of data. Real time insight is among the list of built in advances. It is said to be six times more powerful than current servers, consuming 80 times less energy. While the workings are large scale, HP hopes to adapt to phones, PCs, and tablets. Though a long way off, the company hopes to introduce The Machine to the market in 2018.
