Blog: HP Researcher Predicts Memory-Centric Processors

HP Researcher Predicts Memory-Centric Processors
EE Times (06/02/10) Merritt, Rick

Hewlett-Packard (HP) researchers are studying ways to make memristor processors the centerpiece of future server designs. The researchers found that low-power processors are superior for some data center workloads and determined that various workloads need different kinds of designs. "Re-thinking the balance of computer, storage, and communications will happen, and it will have big implications," says HP researcher Partha Ranganathan. As part of that rebalancing, HP developed the nanostore, a three-dimensional stack of processor cores connected to nonvolatile memory cores such as HP's memristors. "We've run some experiments [on the nanostore concept], and found the new approach is a factor of 10 better [performance] for the same energy or dollars," Ranganathan says. HP Labs has identified three kinds of server designs that are optimized for different kinds of data center workloads and has created metrics to match workloads to the various designs. Nanostores could emerge to speed switching and routing of traffic running in virtual machines within two years, Ranganathan says.

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