Are You Getting Left Behind?

John MelonakosComputing Trends Leave a Comment

HPCwire posted a nice article today with trends from IDC on computer processing. These trends fall inline and corroborate things we’ve been saying here on this blog. Accelerators (including GPUs and co-processors) are taking off. Are you getting left behind? If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably at the bleeding edge, but nonetheless here are some interesting excerpts from HPCwire’s market report (go read the whole thing):

  • “While they expected to see a jump in coprocessor and accelerator uptake, they were wholly unprepared for the overwhelming positive response to GPUs and new entrants into the market, most notably Intel’s shiny new Phi.”
  • “Conway said that while accelerator and coprocessor adoption growth was anticipated, they had no idea that it would have been over double what it was from the short time since their last survey. [18 months apart]”
  • “The point is, says Conway, ‘Heterogeneity is very much on the rise. We are moving past the experimental phase, people are doing real work now.'”
  • “Of Phi in particular he notes that things are moving along,  ‘but it’s still not clear how easy the new generation will be to program—the real thing here is that it’s going to take time to grow the software ecosystem.'”
  • “Accelerator use is in the early stages but results point to continued penetration of the market.”

Excellent trends for everyone investing in accelerators today and bodes well for the future. If you’re not yet biting down hard onto heterogeneous computing, take another look!

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