真乄科技業的頂尖投資團隊

投射了 HP 對於未來電腦發展願景的 The Machine 終於完成通過測試，證實了其理論是可行的。企業向的 Hewlett Packard Enterprise 最新成功測試首款由記憶體為主幹的電腦架構，即在這電腦裡的運作會更多地依賴記憶體，而非運算能力。這概念原型證實了在定制的軟體環境下，運算節點能分享高速且永久的記憶體，以及示範了高速光子數據連結。

原型機器需要利用更多的節點和記憶體來激發其潛能，但這也是 HPE 在這測試中保持樂觀。在模擬的設計階段中，他們認為記憶體為主的電腦系統在運行代碼時，要比傳統電腦要快 8,000 倍。而這優勢更是商業客戶在進入物聯網世代時，對於伺服器和高端電腦服務的要求，一般人的智慧型家居生活也能因此受惠。

不過，一如其他的新發明，投入商品化的過程才是最大的挑戰。The Machine 所用的非揮發性記憶體（NVRAM）需要到 2018 至 2019 年才會大量投產，而且 HPE 自己也不打算在之前就廣泛應用光子數據技術。所以這還是一項超前市場數年技術突破，始終要待到適合的時候才會正式能應用。

Proof-of-concept prototype represents major milestone for The Machine research project New architecture will deliver big data insights not possible today

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - Nov 28, 2016) - Today, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) announced it has successfully demonstrated Memory-Driven Computing, a concept that puts memory, not processing, at the center of the computing platform to realize performance and efficiency gains not possible today.

Developed as part of The Machine research program, HPE's proof-of-concept prototype represents a major milestone in the company's efforts to transform the fundamental architecture on which all computers have been built for the past 60 years.

Gartner predicts that by 2020, the number of connected devices will reach 20.8 billion and generate an unprecedented volume of data, which is growing at a faster rate than the ability to process, store, manage and secure it with existing computing architectures.

"We have achieved a major milestone with The Machine research project -- one of the largest and most complex research projects in our company's history," said Antonio Neri, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Enterprise Group at HPE. "With this prototype, we have demonstrated the potential of Memory-Driven Computing and also opened the door to immediate innovation. Our customers and the industry as a whole can expect to benefit from these advancements as we continue our pursuit of game-changing technologies."

The proof-of-concept prototype, which was brought online in October, shows the fundamental building blocks of the new architecture working together, just as they had been designed by researchers at HPE and its research arm, Hewlett Packard Labs. HPE has demonstrated:

Compute nodes accessing a shared pool of Fabric-Attached Memory;
An optimized Linux-based operating system (OS) running on a customized System on a Chip (SOC);
Photonics/Optical communication links, including the new X1 photonics module, are online and operational; and
New software programming tools designed to take advantage of abundant persistent memory. 
During the design phase of the prototype, simulations predicted the speed of this architecture would improve current computing by multiple orders of magnitude. The company has run new software programming tools on existing products, illustrating improved execution speeds of up to 8,000 times on a variety of workloads. HPE expects to achieve similar results as it expands the capacity of the prototype with more nodes and memory.

In addition to bringing added capacity online, The Machine research project will increase focus on exascale computing. Exascale is a developing area of High Performance Computing (HPC) that aims to create computers several orders of magnitude more powerful than any system online today. HPE's Memory-Driven Computing architecture is incredibly scalable, from tiny IoT devices to the exascale, making it an ideal foundation for a wide range of emerging high-performance compute and data intensive workloads, including big data analytics.

Memory-Driven Computing & Commercialization
HPE is committed to rapidly commercializing the technologies developed under The Machine research project into new and existing products. These technologies currently fall into four categories: Non-volatile memory, fabric (including photonics), ecosystem enablement and security.

Non-Volatile Memory (NVM)
HPE continues its work to bring true, byte-addressable NVM to market and plans to introduce it as soon as 2018/2019. Using technologies from The Machine project, the company developed HPE Persistent Memory -- a step on the path to byte-addressable non-volatile memory, which aims to approach the performance of DRAM while offering the capacity and persistence of traditional storage. The company launched HPE Persistent Memory in the HPE ProLiant DL360 and DL380 Gen9  servers.

Fabric (including Photonics)
Due to our photonics research, HPE has taken steps to future-proof products, such as enabling HPE Synergy systems that will be available next year to accept future photonics/optics technologies currently in advanced development. Looking beyond, HPE plans to integrate photonics into additional product lines, including its storage portfolio, as soon as 2018/2019. The company also plans to bring to market fabric-attached memory, leveraging the high-performance interconnect protocol being developed under the recently announced Gen-Z Consortium, of which HPE recently joined.

Ecosystem Enablement
Much work has already been completed to build software for future memory-driven systems. HPE launched a Hortonworks/Spark collaboration this year to bring software built for Memory-Driven Computing to market. In June 2016, the company also began releasing code packages on Github to begin familiarizing developers with programming on the new memory-driven architecture. The company plans to put this code into existing systems within the next year and will develop next-generation analytics and applications into new systems as soon as 2018/2019. As part of the Gen-Z Consortium HPE plans to start integrating ecosystem technology and specifications from this industry collaboration into a range of products during the next few years.

Security
With this prototype, HPE demonstrated new, secure memory interconnects in line with its vision to embed security throughout the entire hardware and software stack. HPE plans to further this work with new hardware security features in the next year, followed by new software security features over the next three years. Beginning in 2020, the company plans to bring these solutions together with additional security technologies currently in the research phase.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise 
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is an industry-leading technology company that enables customers to go further, faster. With one of the industry's most comprehensive portfolios, spanning the cloud to the data center to workplace applications, our technology and services help customers around the world make IT more efficient, more productive and more secure.

Forward-looking statements 
The information included in this press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If the risks or uncertainties ever materialize or the assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Hewlett Packard Enterprise may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the need to address the many challenges facing Hewlett Packard Enterprise's businesses; the competitive pressures faced by Hewlett Packard Enterprise's businesses; risks associated with executing Hewlett Packard Enterprise's strategy; the development and transition of new products and services and the enhancement of existing products and services to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and its suppliers, customers and partners; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; and other risks that are described in Hewlett Packard Enterprise's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hewlett Packard Enterprise assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.