Facebook has made waves by detailing its plans to use what an executive calls chips that have a cell-phone architecture in its future data centers. The social network plans to test such chips now and next year and will likely have them in production in 2014.…
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After SeaMicro, why AMD’s next step will be an ARM license
Now that AMD has confirmed its purchase of low-power server maker SeaMicro, I bet its next move will be an announcement around licensing the ARM architecture. That's right: AMD will do a deal with the company that provides the architecture for chips inside your cell phone.…
Read More3 startups that showcase the future of chips
If we're going to create an Internet of things that connects back to a cloud powered by millions of servers, the chip world will have to change to reduce power consumption, shrink in size and embrace new architectures. Here are three startups that showcase these shifts.…
Read MoreIn computer programming should more cores equal less accuracy?
We are moving from the information age to the insight age. So the computer industry is building chip with more cores to keep up with influx of data and the need to process it faster. But more cores means new ways of programming.…
Read MoreHow power in the data center is driving disruption
The future of data centers is not about performance. It’s about performance per watt. It’s about building a data center that uses less power, lowers operating costs and leaves a smaller carbon footprint.…
Read MoreFacebook sides with Tilera in the server architecture debate
Facebook engineers have tested a 64-core chip from Tilera and found it ideal for grabbing data quickly from key value stores. This may galvanize the creation of new benchmarks as the debate of which architecture works best for webscale and cloud computing rages.…
Read MoreIntel buys networking chipmaker because the data center is now the computer
Intel has purchased an Ethernet silicon company in a move that mimics the industry trend toward viewing the data center as the computer as computing becomes more distributed. Intel said on Tuesday it would buy Fulcrum Microsystems, a venture-backed company that's 11 years old.…
Read MoreServers are like money, you’ll always need more
We give Intel a lot of flack here at GigaOM for not being mobile enough or low power enough for scale out computing, but the chipmaker is doing all right in the server category. We discussed how well and the future for servers in this video.…
Read MoreEfficiency vs. performance: What’ll win for the hardware of the future?
In the debate over the future of server hardware, it comes down to the need for highly efficient hardware using up a fraction of the space and a fraction of the power of legacy hardware solutions, versus the desire for more powerful options from existing manufacturers.…
Read MoreWhy cloud, not PC, drives chip innovations
For decades, innovation in the chip industry has largely been governed by the needs of personal computers. But thanks to the proliferation of connected mobile devices, the growth of the consumer web and services available online and on-demand, the PC's influence on chip design is fading.…
Read MoreQuestion Everything: A New Processor For Big Data
We are moving from the Information Age to the Insight Age, and as part of that shift we need a compute architecture that will handle the storage and processing required all without requiring a power plant hooked up to every data center. What architecture will win?…
Read MoreTilera Scores $45M for Specialized Cloud Chips
Tilera, a chip design firm that's building a 100-core processor for hugely parallel compute problems, has raised $45 million in funding from investors that include Artis Capital Management, WestSummit Capital Management and Comerica Bank. The company has raised a total of $109 million.…
Read MoreTilera Offering Tweaked Hardware for the Cloud
Tilera, the maker of a massively multicore chip, has signed a deal with hardware manufacturer Quanta to offer a server designed especially for the cloud, becoming one of several startups aiming to meet worldwide demand for compute-based services and amid concerns about energy efficiency.…
Read MoreDoes the Cloud Need a Specialized Chip?
Tilera, one of many companies trying to build specialty chips or systems for cloud and web-scale computing, received a strategic investment today from Broadcom. But even as the investment validates Tilera, does the cloud need its own specialty chips and gear?…
Read MoreChip Startup Tilera Dreams the Impossible Dream
Anant Agarwal, co-founder and CTO of Tilera, is tackling the Mount Everest of chips. His goal for decades has been to figure…
Read MoreIntel, Microsoft Gorging on Multicore Programming Startups
[qi:gigaom_icon_chip] Microsoft (s msft) and Intel (s intc) this summer both snapped up companies with technology that helps software developers build programs…
Read MoreFive Multicore Chip Startups to Watch
As semiconductor firms get around the limitations of making individual processors faster by putting more cores onto a single chip, the mindset of today’s software developers and engineers mindset needs to adapt. Here are five startups that have the potential to stretch multicore processors to their very limit.…
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