HPE demonstrates memory-driven computing with The Machine

HPE has shown off a new proof-of-concept computing technology that is architected around memory, rather than processing.

The innovation, which comes out of the company's The Machine research programme, can significantly improve both efficiency and performance, it claimed.

"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."

HPE said the speed increases enabled by this new architecture "would improve current computing by multiple orders of magnitude". Quite how many "multiples" that is, however, wasn't specified.

This new memory-centric architecture is also highly scalable, HPE said, meaning it can work in extremely small IoT devices and "exascale" high-performance computing (HPC) systems.

This, the company claims, makes it "an ideal foundation for a wide range of emerging high-performance compute and data intensive workloads, including big data analytics".

This latest The Machine PoC was shown off at HPE Discover Europe 2016, which is taking place in London this week. IoT and data-intensive workloads are two of the company's big focuses this autumn. In her opening keynote, CEO Meg Whitman spoke of the importance of an "intelligent edge" for the IoT to function properly, as well as explaining why businesses should adopt a flexible hybrid IT model.

You can read more from Whitman's keynote here.