I vividly remember the decision I reached way back in 1997. I was working on developing a loss less image compression algorithm as part of my graduate studies. I had to make a choice between a general purpose processor and a DSP from Texas Instruments. I did a detailed study and determined that a DSP was better suited for my work and made the choice to go with it. Back then, DSPs were best suited for real-time signal processing workloads and they have only gotten better since, as evident by PayPal’s recent announcement at the HPC Users Forum.
It’s 2014. We have witnessed unfathomable progress in the computing industry landscape, creating devices with computing capabilities far beyond our wildest dreams back then. TI has not only kept pace but is the established leader in DSP cores. TI’s DSP-based platforms have powered a mobile revolution, enabled new capabilities for medical devices, created new services for mission critical applications and led the foray into many new application areas. Today I am very happy to see world’s biggest server vendor, Hewlett-Packard (HP), announce a server platform based on TI’s 66AK2Hx device. This system-on-chip (SoC) device is based on a TI’s KeyStone™ II architecture which provides a server class system with integrated C66x DSP cores and ARM® Cortex®-A15 cores.. It is also the first one to have integrated interfaces with dedicated acceleration for HPC on an SoC. HP’s Moonshot server with TI-powered cartridges provides unprecedented scale, compute and programmable capabilities to perform real time data processing.
Swoop Search, a company providing users with a search and analytics engine, is a prime example of what can be done with the unprecedented capabilities offered by the Keystone II powered Moonshot server. Swoop Search allows users to comb for relevant information, either from data or from the web, in a graphical and intuitive manner which helps uncover hidden relationships and insights that would have previously been missed. Swoop Search has found that HP’s Moonshot server with TI DSP-based cartridges is the best platform for these new algorithms, outperforming all other servers tested. If you are in the San Francisco bay area stop by HP’s booth at ARM Tech Conference to see Swoop Search in action.
Watch this video to see how Swoop Search uses TI DSPs to create order from chaos:
It’s Real and It’s Time for you to experience the 66AK2Hx processor powered Moonshot server.