Grid Software Creates Virtual Windows Supercomputer

By Tiffany Trader

November 20, 2012

What if you could combine the benefits of virtualization, grid and cloud computing to accelerate Windows-based applications? An Israeli company, Xoreax, is doing just that. We spoke with Xoreax at SC12 in Salt Lake City, Utah, last week to learn more about their offering.

Xoreax got its start back in 2002 and for the last 10 years, they’ve been accelerating software in the Windows environment, using distributed, aka grid, computing technology. Their IncrediBuild-XGE (Xoreax Grid Engine) software uses a unique technology called process level virtualization to create a virtual HPC machine. The software harnesses unutilized CPUs to create a private grid. It runs on a company’s existing Windows infrastructure and extends into the public cloud if more resources are required.

Typical server and CPU utilization rates are notoriously low; IncrediBuild finds all that spare compute capability and exposes it.

“It’s like having virtual HPC – every workstation in this network can scale out to tap into the amount of resources that is in the entire network,” says CTO Dori Exterman.

“We have an agent in every machine and create a private grid out of all these machines and can also scale out to the cloud. The solution is currently Windows-only, and there aren’t many Windows solutions for this kind of cycle scavenging.”

Unlike other grid and virtualization solutions, IncrediBuild works out of the box. Traditional grid solutions require the user to change the source code and target an API. This extra work makes sense for very demanding applications like real-time financial trading, but Xoreax is targeting more general-purpose workloads that are also process-intensive.

The solution combines grid and virtualization, but instead of virtualizing entire machines like VMware does, the technology virtualizes a single process.

“We can take a process and virtualize it on the network. When the process needs some files from the local machine, the software acts like a middleman between the process and the operating system and we can take all that environment that the process requires on demand from the initial machine, cache it on the remote machine and give the process everything it needs in order to work on the remote machine,” explains Exterman.

“The process does not care where it’s running because we will create all the environment for it. You don’t need to install any software on the remote machines,” he adds.

Traditional HPC usually requires costly investments of time and resources in hardware, training and expertise, whereas process virtualization leverages the customers own resources. Potential customers are interested in ease of implementation and integration and they don’t want to be vendor-bound, the CTO notes, adding that integration takes less than an hour and requires only a small 2-line xml file.

Perhaps owing to Xoreax’s niche as a code-build accelerator, the company is not that widely known despite healthy deployment numbers. Over 100,000 users from some 50 countries rely on XGE-based products, and customers include big-name corporations like Cisco, NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, eBay and IBM.

Under the OEM model, a software vendor integrates with IncrediBuild-XGE and then provides the product to their end users. One such example is the large diamond grading outfit Sarin, which uses the software to accelerate diamond analysis for tens of thousands of customers. Instead of running all the simulations on a single dedicated server they can scale out across all their in-house resources and into the cloud. With the XGE client, Sarin has achieve a 20x speedup in system performance. The time required for complex analyses has shrunk from 40-60 hours down to 2-4 hours, while simpler 1-2 hour analyses now complete in 10-15 minutes.

As with most grid or cloud solutions, IncrediBuild is intended for applications that are compute-intensive as opposed to I/O-intensive. It’s well-suited for computational tasks that take a lot of time, such as batch processing or near real-time. Gaming, financial services and manufacturing are some key verticals.

While early use cases revolved around computation acceleration, the software development space has evolved into their main customer base. IncrediBuild reduces the time of many development environment tasks, including code analysis, unit testing, QA script, stress tests and code verification. The company states it is the most popular off-the-shelf accelerator for Visual Studio code builds.

Another interesting IncrediBuild-XGE use case is the follow-the-moon scenario, where two manufacturing centers located in opposite hemispheres distribute their resources to balance workloads.

On the OEM side, IncrediBuild-XGE has added support for GPUs. This capability offers a lot of potential to engineers working with graphics-intensive workloads, like rendering or CFD. Running an application on a remote server with a dedicated discrete GPU can take minutes instead of hours versus running on a local workstation with an on-board GPU.

IncrediBuild-XGE is compatible with virtually any IaaS offering. Because the engine works with VMware, it runs everywhere you can mount a machine and have VMware run it as part of your subnet. During times of high demand, users can add virtually unlimited resources to their IncrediBuild grid.

On the subject of competition, both the CEO Eyal Maor and the CTO respond that the process virtualization technology is unique and that there aren’t really any comparable offerings. When I inquire about Windows-based grid vendor Digipede specifically, they acknowledge the similarities, but state that they “don’t run into them.”

As for their future roadmap, Xoreax doesn’t want to reveal too much, but the company hints at several announcements that are coming down the pike that could significantly expand their user ecosystem, including plans around Linux and tablets.

Xoreax offers separate pricing terms for its OEM and off-the-shelf products. The cost of the OEM version is negotiated on a per-customer basis, while the off-the-shelf pricing is per agent and based on the total number of cores that the agent is using. The company also offers different product packages, depending on the type of acceleration desired. Interested users can download a trial license, which gives them a chance to kick the tires and decide if the solution is right for them.

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from its predecessors, including the red-hot H100 and A100 GPUs. Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. While Nvidia may not spring to mind when thinking of the quant Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Meet the HPE Mentors

March 18, 2024

The latest installment of the 2024 Winter Classic Studio Update Show features our interview with the HPE mentor team who introduced our student teams to the joys (and potential sorrows) of the HPL (LINPACK) and accompany Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the field was normalized for boys in 1969 when the Apollo 11 missi Read more…

Apple Buys DarwinAI Deepening its AI Push According to Report

March 14, 2024

Apple has purchased Canadian AI startup DarwinAI according to a Bloomberg report today. Apparently the deal was done early this year but still hasn’t been publicly announced according to the report. Apple is preparing Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimization algorithms to iteratively refine their parameters until Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the fi Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimizat Read more…

PASQAL Issues Roadmap to 10,000 Qubits in 2026 and Fault Tolerance in 2028

March 13, 2024

Paris-based PASQAL, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum computers, yesterday issued a roadmap for delivering systems with 10,000 physical qubits in 2026 a Read more…

India Is an AI Powerhouse Waiting to Happen, but Challenges Await

March 12, 2024

The Indian government is pushing full speed ahead to make the country an attractive technology base, especially in the hot fields of AI and semiconductors, but Read more…

Charles Tahan Exits National Quantum Coordination Office

March 12, 2024

(March 1, 2024) My first official day at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was June 15, 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 loc Read more…

AI Bias In the Spotlight On International Women’s Day

March 11, 2024

What impact does AI bias have on women and girls? What can people do to increase female participation in the AI field? These are some of the questions the tech Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Analyst Panel Says Take the Quantum Computing Plunge Now…

November 27, 2023

Should you start exploring quantum computing? Yes, said a panel of analysts convened at Tabor Communications HPC and AI on Wall Street conference earlier this y Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Training of 1-Trillion Parameter Scientific AI Begins

November 13, 2023

A US national lab has started training a massive AI brain that could ultimately become the must-have computing resource for scientific researchers. Argonne N Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire