Cray goes with Intel for HPC
AMD's position cloudy
SUPERCOMPUTER maker Cray has signed a multi-year deal with Intel to use its silicon in High Performance Computing (HPC) products. Details are sketchy, with a conference call scheduled for later today US time.
The two companies plan to explore future supercomputer component designs such as multi-core processing and advanced interconnects. As a result of the deal, Cray and Intel will develop a range of HPC systems and technologies over the 'next several years'. Xeon processors will be used initially, say the companies.
Cray currently uses AMD silicon in its XT3, XT4 and XT5 ranges. An unnamed Intel source said he believed AMD would still play a part in Cray's future plans, but could not elaborate further. Whatever the outcome, it can only be seen as a significant kick in the teeth for troubled AMD.
Pat Gelsinger reckoned Cray's commitment to Intel a "testament" to "the strength of our hardware and software roadmap and many-core research."
"Together we will enable fundamental and historical problems of science and industry to be solved," he burbled, according to a premature Intel emission.
More details later, we hope. µ
Comments
Atlas,...
They're building a better cheese cutter for a better little cray mouse trap.Obviously, these Fibonacci divine-proportion thrill seekers, have not caught on to Nvidic's Jen Hsun Huang's claim that GPCPUs (or some other such derivative) have killed CPUs and in true MTV's Real World reality, will be doing all of the future number wang for mankind. Still it is troublesome to read that AMD has closed shop on R&D, and that Intel plans to move away from building the biggest, faster processors to low-cost, relatively low power offerings such as atoms, quarks and quirks. Surely the unphased phase-change cooling lobby will be feeling the cold-shoulder differential coefficient. I shudder meself to think that finally there may be Pi for the masses, even when higher powers have let us eat cake.
Kicking and Pumping
A kick in the teeth for AMD? Paalease! Perhaps CRAY should be a bit more patient with AMD. After all, what a mere 16% drop in revenue while waiting for the Barcelona that never materialized last year. When it did, they had a little problem with TLB. You can’t down play its importance in HPC. Now that it’s arrived the thermals are too high and the clocks are too low.Perhaps, if I may suggest, rephrasing that to “CRAY kicks AMD in the teeth after AMD pumped CRAY in the keester.”
Besides what’s a 16% loss in revenue to AMD, peanuts. They can do that in a quarter, no problem.
SPARKS
Yeah, right
Like there are 20 OTHER HX86 manufs around.Baaaaah, sheep.
best. comment. evah
Maybe i've been reading this website for too long or i'm growing old but i think Karlsbad-the-nutter just made the best post ever.Mass market sales - not
its much easier to make a pound from a million people than a million pounds from one person.Whilst the Cray deal loss is unfortunate its hardly in the mass market volume arena where the real money is to be made.
Most people on the street have never heard of Cray, so who really cares?
Just some boffin somewhere who has a craving for round things to keep the wires shorter...
Less than two years ago Cray was beset with financial problems with a penny share category stock price...the type of customer you issue pro-formas to...
Can't say I would be rushing to sell them product...