Pico Computing makes noise with blade server release

Pico Computing has unleashed its EX-800 blade server that features the combination of a hybrid memory cube (HMC) and four Altera Stratix V FPGAs (providing 3.6M FPGA gates). The massively parallel computational capabilities of the FPGAs can be used to drive the HMC at full speed, noted the firm.

A single HMC can produce an incredible data bandwidth of 160GB/s, thereby providing more than 15 times the performance of a modern DDR3 memory module while consuming 70 percent less power. (Multiple HMCs can be chained together to appear as a single, mega-humongous memory.)

The EX-800 PCI Express board also features 16 full-duplex lane connections from the HMC to each of the four Stratix V FPGAs a 4GB Micron DDR3L SODIMM dedicated to each of the four FPGAs (32 GB total) and PCI Express Gen 3 full duplex switch. It also boasts x16 Gen3 PCI Express to the host and x8 Gen3 PCI Express link to each Stratix V FPGA.

The amount of digital data in the world is increasing at a tremendous rate. Some say the world's data is doubling every two years, while others say it's doubling every year. A wide variety of big data applications鈥攊ncluding bioinformatics, financial trading, imaging and surveillance鈥攔equire the ability to capture and process an ever-increasing volume of data at faster rates. Pico Computing said the extreme bandwidth and exceptionally low latency offered by the EX-800 will enable significant advances in these and other industries.