HPCwire: Innovation and Commoditization in High Performance Computing

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January 19, 2007

Innovation and Commoditization in High Performance Computing

by Christopher C. Aycock, MS, Oxford University

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Consumer-product giants like Kraft or Procter & Gamble have to compete with cheap knock-offs under a retailer's own brand. How they accomplish this is by developing a new product that does a better job of solving a customer's need. "Better" can include safer, more effective, and easier to use.

That a pioneering work is copied is not lamentable. A dropping price means both greater accessibility and the incentive for greater creativity. Innovation and commoditization are complementary. If the former is a path, then the latter are its endpoints. An existing commodity product sets the starting location for the innovator's journey that eventually leads to new products to commoditize.

Being Useful

Consider the x86 CPU. While Intel tried to disown its child by working on Itanium, AMD enhanced the x86 with 64-bit extensions, low power consumption, and multi-core architectures. AMD started with an existing commodity product, innovated, and created what has ultimately become a new commodity product.

To be precise, it's not the x86 CPU that was important, but rather a CPU that can execute x86 instructions quickly. In creating a new instruction set, Intel required their customers to spend the time and money to port legacy systems to Itanium. AMD's customers, meanwhile, were able to leverage their existing infrastructure more effectively. In essence, AMD followed the mantra of scientific discovery by standing on the shoulders of a giant. Building over an established baseline is a key factor for success.

Corporations often attempt to create an atmosphere of innovation. Common approaches include "skunk works" that bring A-list people together to work with minimal oversight, or "twenty-percent time" in which employees devote one day each week to a pet project. But more technologically advanced does not always mean better. Different does not equal useful. Innovation is only useful if it solves a problem.

HPC customers require a number of fast processors, a solid operating system, and a robust network. Linux Networx gives customers exactly this by integrating commodity components. In a way, they are doing for HPC today what Dell did for the PC twenty years ago. Compare that approach to Cray's insistence on building their own network, among other components. Even Apple realized the error of their way and are now using the x86 with an open source kernel.

The Software Component

Certainly in the high-end server market open source operating systems are taking the stage. With its significantly lower cost of adoption, Linux has become a central component for many vendors. Compare that adoption trend to Solaris after the dot-com bust; Solaris finally became open source after Sun lost market share.

The interesting thing about open source software is that technically savvy users may also act as contributors, hence the abundance of open source technical computing tools. Challenges within a user's domain thus subsequently drive the innovation of HPC software. This principle has led to a curious result in that end users are programming with MPI.

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