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The Cloud Computer

oxide.computer

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Re: The Cloud Computer

#891

Post by jeffrallen »

speed_spread wrote: post #886
eduction wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you're deploying VMs, which is the use case here, the substrate OS becomes significantly less important. Those VMs will mostly just be linux. Yes they are using illumos/Solaris to host this but they don't sell on that, they sell on the functionality of this layer — allowing people to deploy to owned infra in a way that is similar to how they'd deploy to AWS or Azure. How much do you ever think about the system h…

I have a feeling they knew exactly from the start who their customers would be: People who have the budget to care about things like trust and observability in a complex system. But these would also be the kind of customers who require absolute secrecy and so this why you don't hear about them even though they might have bankrolled a sizable portion of the operation. Just like the first Cray to officially be shipped…

Can you imagine trying to investigate Bryan for a security clearance?

"Sir, if you have nothing to hide, why do you talk so fast, and pronounce words like a foreigner who learned English from a book?"

:)

We love you Bryan, never change.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#892

Post by taink »

cprecioso wrote: post #863
sgloutnikov wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately they are not planning home lab things anytime soon, per a recent podcast episode [0]. If you want to play around with their Hubris OS: "You wanna buy an STM32H753 eval board. You can download Hubris, and then you’ve got – you’ve got an Oxide computer. You have it for 20 bucks.” [0] https://changelog.com/friends/8

Maybe somebody can help me find the $20 one, but the one I can see is $460 https://estore.st.com/en/stm32h753i-eval2-cpn.html

I don't know if this is a reputable source in any way but a quick search shows this: https://www2.mouser.com/c/?processor%20series=STM32H753

Re: The Cloud Computer

#893

Post by slikrick »

endisneigh wrote: post #651
leetrout wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iPhones do have the pedigree Not in 2007-2008 which is equivalent to Oxide today.

Apple was an incredibly well established company and the initial iPhone was not used in enterprise… it didn’t really start to take off there until iPhone 4 (2010-2011). Not to mention the comparison is inane to begin with. Using an iPhone for your enterprise and moving your tech infra to a relatively unknown company are not equivalent at all.

it's so funny to me that you're harping on this analogy when it's clear you are so stubborn you won't accept anyone else's answer anyways.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#894

Post by Fnoord »

wpm wrote: post #854
Fnoord wrote: post #807

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the rack is custom designed to be very quiet. And it was early mentioned in the article. I'm sure they thought it through... but why? Do they want people to store this in their office workspace? It seems like a niche to me? For smaller embedded devices like home appliance and the like, fanless or the option to have low or no fan speed (like modern GPUs) seems to make sense. Because they're stored in the househol…

>That the rack is quiet wasn’t really deliberate (and we are frankly much more interested in the often hidden power draw that blaring fan noise represents). They optimized for power. That roar of fan noise doesn't necessarily mean they're doing a better job cooling.

So for power and therefore noise. Why though? I can see how it is interesting given energy crisis plus not going to squeeze out max W for performance at the cost of energy. If that is the reason, then it is going to be more cost efficient than competitors on the longer term, at the cost of perhaps requiring more hardware to possibly scale up.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#895

Post by geraldhh »

goldinfra wrote: post #823
SoftTalker wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, I'm still using a cluster of Haswell processors to run VMs for appropriate workloads and it's all fine.

If you're not rapidly scaling it probably doesn't matter. But if you're still buying (and maybe even using) Haswell CPUs in 2023, you may be missing out in a big way. A moderately large Haswell cluster is equivalent in power to a moderately powerful modern server.

replacing when and if energy, resources and effort required to run it surpass those required to replace it is efficient

Re: The Cloud Computer

#896

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #587
fefe23 wrote: post #11

This is actually a pretty big deal. They sell servers, but as a finished product. Not as a cobbled together mess of third party stuff where the vendor keeps shrugging if there is an integration problem. They integrated it. It comes with all the features they expect you to want if you wanted to build your own cloud. Also, they wrote the software. And it's all open source. So no "sorry but the third party vendor droppe…

Its a huge deal. I'm biased though because my own takes on how things should evolve were very similar. I was however completely unsuccessful in getting those ideas into production! And that, that is a huge deal. Through out my career it has been interesting to meet people with great ideas and then they are unable to get them into production, and when the idea does come into production everyone feels like "Wow, this i…

> I just hope they don't get killed by acquisition.

Private equity in the US has collectively determined that no company shall exist outside of investment ownership. I don't know what the ownership structure looks like, but generally speaking, it seems that nearly everyone has a "fuck you" number. Now that Oxide is venturing into Dell and HP's turf, I worry someone will get a fix on what Brian's number is.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#897

Post by kayge »

mstade wrote: post #284

It bugs me more than it should that they flirt with hexadecimal numbers in their branding with the whole 0x thing, but the logo is 0xide when clearly it ought to be 0x1de. Designer came up with a clever idea but didn't understand hexadecimal, and no one had the heart to tell them? :o) I'm kidding, mostly. The engineer in me is bothered by it, but the part of my brain that cares more about design and branding understa…

"we needed a name — and once we hit on Oxide, we knew it was us: oxides form much of the earth’s crust, giving a connotation of foundation; silicon, the element that is the foundation of all of computing, is found in nature in its oxide; and (yes!) iron oxide is also known as Rust, a programming language we see playing a substantial role for us. Were there any doubt, that Oxide can also be pseudo-written in hexadecimal — as 0x1de — pretty much sealed the deal!"

from https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2019/12/02/the-soul-of-a-new-co...

Re: The Cloud Computer

#898

Post by mbStavola »

otteromkram wrote: post #717
TrueDuality wrote: post #85

I'd like to add that their open source code is also EXTREMELY high quality. If you're an embedded developer go take a look at Hubris and Humility. I ended up using those to GREAT effect for this custom one-off aerospace device and it was a fantastic experience to integrate with. Definitely a change from what I was used to that took a bit of getting used to.

Is that the same extremely high-quality open-source code that currently has a failing build? https://github.com/oxidecomputer/hubris And, that one underscore-delimited folder name in this repo just catches the eye, huh? https://github.com/oxidecomputer/humility

If those are your complaints, I think they're probably doing okay.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#899

Post by dpflan »

cdchn wrote: post #423
guhidalg wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

F100 waste so many millions already on projects that never see the light of day, why couldn't they throw money at Oxide and see if it works better than their AWS contract?

Megacorp Boondoggles sounds like a lucrative market.

Yes, an industry where FUD and being SOTA is coveted, like cybersecurity can really get enterprise interest with the right connections. Few contracts of sorts to trade for logos on a slide deck and high profile references can get you further. Does your product actually do anything y is useful? Maybe, not yet, maybe never, but you were convincing enough and hey 1/10 startups fail.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#900

Post by nijave »

jjav wrote: post #648
yencabulator wrote: post #557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is a horrible example, with Apple when you have a problem, you often end up with an unfixable issue that Apple won't even acknowledge. You definitely don't want to taint Oxide's reputation with that association. As for why I think Helios will become customer facing: Oxide is a small startup. They have limited resources. Their computers expensive enough to be very much business critical. You'll get some support…

> Apple is a horrible example, Apple is a great example of the benefits of an integrated system where the hardware and software are designed together. There are tons of benefits to that. What makes Apple evil (IMO, many people disagree) is how everything is secret and proprietary and welded shut. But that doesn't take away from the benefits of an integrated hardware/software ecosystem. Oxide is open source so it does…

Android is potentially a better example. Compare Android to trying to get Linux working on . You might get lucky and it works out of the box or you might find yourself in a 15 page "how to fix " wiki where you end up compiling a bunch of stuff with random patches.

Afaik Android phones tend to have a lot more hardware than your average laptop, too (cell modem, gps, multiple cameras, gyro, accelerometer, light sensors, finger print readers)

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