Thursday, June 12, 2014

HP to Take On IBM's Watson In Supercomputers (HPQ)

We like supercomputers.
From the WSJ's Digits blog:

H-P to Challenge IBM in Supercomputing With Apollo 

Hewlett-Packard HPQ +1.14% is taking on International Business Machines IBM -0.26% in high-end supercomputers, the latest sign that H-P is doubling down on technology hardware while IBM pulls back from the market.

On Monday, H-P announced two new computer server products under the new Apollo brand name. One of the machines, the H-P Apollo 6000, combines up to 160 low-end servers in one rack that H-P says will offer high performance computing capabilities that are superior to existing systems while using up to about half of the energy. These types of systems sell for less than $100,000, but can go as high as $500,000, says research firm IDC.

The other system, the H-P Apollo 8000, will be the world’s first completely liquid-cooled supercomputer that lets H-P compete for the first with IBM and Cray in the high end of the market, says Antonio Neri, H-P’s head of servers and networking. Those machines typically sell for $500,000 at the low end, but can easily reach into the millions of dollars or more.
“We are redefining the energy of data centers,” says Neri, who says the supercomputer requires 28% less energy than air-cooled systems. “It is a huge opportunity for us.”

The overall server market hasn’t seen much revenue growth in recent years, says IDC analyst Steve Conway, but he said H-P is smart to beef up its offerings in the high performance computing because it is the fastest growing part of the industry. IDC expects the market to see a 7% compounded annual growth rate between 2014 and 2017....MORE
This is not HP marketing material.
Rather it is from the Computer History Museum's Selling the Revolution brochures collection.
Here are the companies listings, starting with Apple.