SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
venturebeat.com
SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
1–10 of 110 posts
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#2The way I read this, they are achieving savings by virtually mux-ing (or de-muxing depending on viewpoint) much of everything that's not the CPU. Is this optimized to make the support of virtual servers with relatively low throughput more efficient?
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#3Interesting... I've never been in a really big datacenter, so I'd like to see some (hopefully non-biased) reviews from somebody that does work in those places.
Would this really work well for the intended market? There are lots of startups over here that plan on massively serving webpages - would something like this (only cheaper :) ) make you reconsider using whatever cloud services you're currently using?
Articles I found on Google:
http://gigaom.com/2010/06/13/seamicros-low-power-server-fina...
and the Wall Street Journal's take:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/06/14/seamicro-tries-to-ret...
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#4James Hamilton, VP at Amazon and author of the popular blog "Perspectives" has some interesting insights into and great things to say about the work SeaMicro and other new startups are doing to revolutionize the server industry.
http://perspectives.mvdirona.com/2010/06/14/SeaMicroReleases...
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#5Interesting... I've never been in a really big datacenter, so I'd like to see some (hopefully non-biased) reviews from somebody that does work in those places. Would this really work well for the intended market? There are lots of startups over here that plan on massively serving webpages - would something like this (only cheaper :) ) make you reconsider using whatever cloud services you're currently using? Articles…
There are lots of startups over here that plan on massively serving webpages
Seamicro is using the same sort of lateral move that RISC made and that Transmeta attempted to apply: Could certain functions happen more efficiently if moved outside of the traditional 'box?'
Could a datacenter provide a low-latency infrastructure for front-end web-servers while reducing their power and other expenses? I think there's a good chance this is already being done.
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#6I hope this shakes up the VPS hosting industry, too. I'd love to see what kind of Linode or EC2 style on-demand computing these might provide.
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#7Big surprise, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM not innovating? I can't believe it...
Just look at the computers they are selling. most still offers 512M of RAM as a default. What can you run on 512? Nothing like having to upgrade the day you receive your product. Consumers by and large need the guidance of manufacturers to make the right HW choices and the manufacturers just want the cash. They will suck each segment dry until the market forces them to make the changes. That's progress?
With all the advances in multi-monitor add-on SW or the fact that Windows and Mac OS have been supporting multi-monitor control for years, try finding hardware already fitted with multiple display connections. In the end, the user is forced to customize their own equipment. And yes, I know most HN readers do this, but I am talking about the general public.
Great to see the little guys are still fighting. The big ones really don't give a damn.
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#8Big surprise, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM not innovating? I can't believe it... Just look at the computers they are selling. most still offers 512M of RAM as a default. What can you run on 512? Nothing like having to upgrade the day you receive your product. Consumers by and large need the guidance of manufacturers to make the right HW choices and the manufacturers just want the cash. They will suck each segment dr…
> What the F* can you run on 512?
A lot, really. I have rendered DVD quality movies, handled product composition databases and processed millions of orders on machines with less than 512 megs of memory.
Not many companies (or people) have enough data or volume to stress a machine with 512 megs of RAM. I agree it seems a pittance - my netbook has more than that - but if I break up memory usage by application here, Firefox takes most of the RAM, then Gwibber, then Rhythmbox. None of them would be running on a server.
It would be interesting to write down a list of what you can't do with 512M.
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#9Interesting article, but a terrible title! Atom bombs, really?
Re: SeaMicro drops an atom bomb on the server industry
#10The way I read this, they are achieving savings by virtually mux-ing (or de-muxing depending on viewpoint) much of everything that's not the CPU. Is this optimized to make the support of virtual servers with relatively low throughput more efficient?
I read it to be they created a chip that runs code written to emulate/virtualize most of the other (non-cpu) logic on a motherboard. so instead of 10 "io" chips and 10 "memory" chips most of which are idle they have 15 virt chips which may act as either "io" or "memory" depending on demand.
I guess (de)muxing is close to that? Multiplexing many "request" amongst fewer real(non-virutal) objects.