Listen to this articleEmu Technology is leading the way by delivering a new computing architecture for data intensive, real-time Big Data computing that breaks with the computer designs of the past by combining finely grained parallelism with in-Memory computing and migration of compute context to data. The result is greater scale, greater efficiency and lower energy required to deliver high fidelity insights in less time. Below is our interview with Martin Deneroff, Chief Operating Officer of Emu Technology:
Q: What is Emu’s story, how did you start?
A: Our founders Dr Peter Kogge, Dr. Jay Brockman and Dr. Ed Upchurch recognized a need for a new approach to computing and founded Emu Technology. While other companies are tackling the performance limits of existing computers including cpu clockspeed and transitor density, power demands, as well as memory, cache and GPU size, Emu envisioned a completely novel approach to achieving high-performance. Their “genius of the and” approach adds a breakthrough approach that complements the efforts of major players in the computing industry, and promises to accelerate the delivery of a new generation of deployable, low-energy supercomputers.
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Q: What makes your solution unique?
A: Emu was designed from the ground up, recognizing that data movement is the key contributor to bottlenecks throughout all of today’s computer systems. Traditional computers move data to a CPU or GPU for complex calculations. It’s this data movement where performance is throttled and that places extreme demands on power and cooling to make it happen. With Emu, data is resident in memory, there are many cores and rather than moving data to the CPU or GPU, the process context is sent to where the data is and calculated by the local core. We call this patented innovation Migratory Threads. Migratory Threads, along with our system design which does not have buses or caches is optimal for data intensive Big Data analytics. For these kinds of applications, our approach is lighter-weight, faster, more efficient and uses less energy.
Q: What exactly is Emu Chick, how does it work?
A: The Emu Chick is a 256 core compact tower computer system. It runs industry standard Centos 7.3 Linux, and is programmed in CilkPlus, which is a high-performance code that enables Emu’s migratory thread technology. While extremely innovative, CilkPlus presents a familiar programming environment that enables developers to focus on algorithms and applications, rather than learning the intricacies of a new language. The Chick operates from 120 VAC power and requires no special computer room infrastructure. It provides sufficient memory and storage memory and storage for common data analytics applications and is completely software compatible with larger Emu1 rack systems.
Q: Who are the primary users of Emu and what are some of the key challenges you are helping them solve?
A: Emu users are the scientists, researchers and developers who are tackling the most profound computing challenges of our era. These are people who are tasked with analyzing massive data warehouses and unstructured databases containing 100s of TBs or more of disparate information. For applications in segments like threat intelligence, graph analysis, cybersecurity, semi-supervised and unsupervised machine learning, a “no compromise” approach to addressing data intensive Big Data is needed. That means being able to handle data streaming and changes to the data set while analysis is underway. This need is common in defense, government research labs, real-time trend and pattern analysis and personalized medicine to name a few.
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Q: How did you chose to grow your business in South Bend, Indiana and New York City, New York instead of a more traditional high tech location?
A: South Bend is the home of our founders and the source for great research and innovative thinking. New York City boasts a vibrant high tech scene with industry emphasis on Big Data analytics. Our solution is designed to address data intensive Big Data analytics – that’s a combination streaming data, data sets with no predictable regularity and computation dominated by data movement instead of floating point operations. Having Emu engineering in technology centers outside the strictures of traditional computer design facilitates our own innovative thinking and enables us to be unchained from the limitations of the past.
Q: What can we expect from Emu in the coming months?
A: Emu will be ramping our hiring of both software and hardware developers to accelerate the delivery of a broader set of applications and algorithms. Jobs are based in New York City, and South Bend, Indiana. Emu will be making systems available for developers as part of a formal program to access to the platform, and we’ll be participating in multiple new partnerships with researchers and industry. To find out more about how Emu’s Migratory Thread technology works, to apply for a position or to join the developer community, visit Emu’s website. Or visit us at SC17 November 13-16 in Denver, Colorado – Booth 2101.
