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Analyst Opinion - AMD brought out Shanghai, their latest part in November, substantially ahead of when it was expected and it arrived in a market hungry for efficient performance but lacking in the cash needed to buy new systems. This week Nehalem EP was released, which is arguably the biggest technology step that Intel has made this decade. Both parts are less about raw performance and are more focused on performance per watt. Right now, there is no other industry in which we care so much about what is inside the box. We only care about the benefits the solution provides. I am certain the computer industry is getting ready to take us back to that future.
The first rebirth of the computer was when the ENIAC gave way to the mainframe and the technology moved out of the labs and into business, the second was the wave that created PCs, workstations, servers - and the networks that tied them together.
As we look out into the changes that are occurring from the work that Microsoft is doing with regard to rethinking the data center as a system as opposed to a collection of parts and Cisco's entry into the space, which argues that the network has an equal part to what is happening with OpenCL and GPU processing, I think we are fast reaching a point where the CPU matters less and less and the system matters more.
In fact, in looking at HP's recent workstation release, where the company used BMW to redesign the product and blended Intel and Nvidia technology into a differentiated solution, it may well be, for both servers and workstations, that parts are becoming parts again and the OEMs are beginning to rethink how to build workstations, servers, and with concepts like OnLive, PCs.
Let's take a look at what may be the third major rebirth of the computer.
Netbooks and smartphones
Starting from the client and moving out, the concepts surrounding the leading smartphones and netbooks have to do with their ability to live off the web. The iPhone isn't even multi-tasking to ensure that each task gets the full performance that was intended and if we look at how netbooks are positioned, they are also seen as vastly more focused on a few things and more dependent on back-end services than the PC ever was. In effect, these may be more like terminals with pretty user interfaces than PCs.
Read on the next page: GPU + CPU = Platform, Cisco and Microsoft: Rethinking servers
The first rebirth of the computer was when the ENIAC gave way to the mainframe and the technology moved out of the labs and into business, the second was the wave that created PCs, workstations, servers - and the networks that tied them together.
As we look out into the changes that are occurring from the work that Microsoft is doing with regard to rethinking the data center as a system as opposed to a collection of parts and Cisco's entry into the space, which argues that the network has an equal part to what is happening with OpenCL and GPU processing, I think we are fast reaching a point where the CPU matters less and less and the system matters more.
In fact, in looking at HP's recent workstation release, where the company used BMW to redesign the product and blended Intel and Nvidia technology into a differentiated solution, it may well be, for both servers and workstations, that parts are becoming parts again and the OEMs are beginning to rethink how to build workstations, servers, and with concepts like OnLive, PCs.
Let's take a look at what may be the third major rebirth of the computer.
Netbooks and smartphones
Starting from the client and moving out, the concepts surrounding the leading smartphones and netbooks have to do with their ability to live off the web. The iPhone isn't even multi-tasking to ensure that each task gets the full performance that was intended and if we look at how netbooks are positioned, they are also seen as vastly more focused on a few things and more dependent on back-end services than the PC ever was. In effect, these may be more like terminals with pretty user interfaces than PCs.
Read on the next page: GPU + CPU = Platform, Cisco and Microsoft: Rethinking servers