{"id":18958,"date":"2017-05-16T21:25:52","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T13:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/hewlett-packard-enterprise-unveils-a-monster-computer-thats-made-for-mars\/"},"modified":"2017-05-16T21:25:52","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T13:25:52","slug":"hewlett-packard-enterprise-unveils-a-monster-computer-thats-made-for-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/hewlett-packard-enterprise-unveils-a-monster-computer-thats-made-for-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Hewlett Packard Enterprise unveils a monster computer that\u2019s made for Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hewlett
In a video tied to the 2016 movie \u201cStar Trek Beyond,\u201d Hewlett Packard Enterprise imagines a time when Starfleet trainees learn about the rise of The Machine. (HPE Discover via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What does a prototype computer with 160 terabytes of memory have to do with missions to Mars? The way Kirk Bresniker sees it, a giant leap in computing is required for the giant leap to the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s actually what we need to wrap around that crew,\u201d Bresniker, chief architect at Hewlett Packard Labs, told GeekWire.<\/p>\n

\"Hewlett<\/p>\n

Bresniker said the latest prototype in a Hewlett Packard Enterprise research project known as The Machine, unveiled today, represents one not-so-small step toward the kind of computer that could be included on a Mars mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have talked with some of the teams who have worked on mission proposals\u201d for journeys to Mars, he said. Bresniker isn\u2019t naming names, but he acknowledged that the companies he\u2019s talking with are on the level of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just aerospace companies that could benefit: Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman says the computer architecture being developed for The Machine is well-suited for addressing big problems on Earth as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe secrets to the next great scientific breakthrough, industry-changing innovation or life-altering technology hide in plain sight behind the mountains of data we create every day,\u201d Whitman said in a statement released today. \u201cTo realize this promise, we can\u2019t rely on the technologies of the past. We need a computer built for the Big Data era.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m9t-G9p8LrI<\/p>\n

HPE calls its concept for The Machine \u201cmemory-driven computing.\u201d Rather than loading data into standard silicon-based memory and relying on calculations and recalculations to process the information, the computer can hold and manipulate entire data sets in its arrays of memristors.<\/p>\n

Memory-driven computing has the potential to keep processing power climbing upward, which is just what the industry needs right now, Bresniker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoore\u2019s Law is running out of steam,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that it\u2019s coming to an end, it leaves us exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone is sold on The Machine: When HPE provided an update on the project last November, some observers said that its memristor technology didn\u2019t look as if it was ready for prime time, and that the concept would \u201cnot emerge from the labs as an official product anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s announcement signals that HPE still has high hopes for The Machine, at least over the long term.<\/p>\n

HPE said its prototype device, comprising 160 terabytes of shared memory spread across 40 physical nodes, is the world\u2019s largest single-memory computer. And Bresniker\u2019s lab is just getting warmed up.<\/p>\n

Bresniker says the computer architecture is on track to scale up to the exabyte level \u2013 that is, a million terabytes of memory \u2013 by the year 2022 or so.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, HPE says the sky\u2019s the limit. More precisely, the limit appears to be 4,096 yottabytes, which HPE says is about 250,000 times the total size of today\u2019s digital universe. (For numbers geeks, one yottabyte equals 1024<\/sup> bytes, or a septillion bytes.)<\/p>\n

Theoretically, that monstrous amount of memory could accommodate every scenario that Mission Control could anticipate for an interplanetary mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy pre-calculating a large number of those plans \u2026 you can include as many \u2018black swans\u2019 as your design team can come up with,\u201d Bresniker said. What\u2019s more, memristor-based data storage systems are \u201cmuch less susceptible to radiation\u201d than today\u2019s systems, he said.<\/p>\n