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HP to release new operating system

by on09 December 2014



The Machine

The maker of expensive printer ink, HP is releasing a new operating system for its new computer, dubbed the Machine. The Machine is supposed to be more energy-efficient and powerful. HP aims to achieve its goals primarily by using a new kind of computer memory instead of the two types that computers use today. Most computers are based on an approach originated in the 1940s, and the need to shuttle data back and forth between the two types of memory limits performance.

Kirk Bresniker, chief architect for The Machine said that sort of design is holding everyone back. His design will compete with the servers that run corporate networks and the services of Internet companies such as Google and Facebook. Bresniker says elements of its design could one day be adapted for smaller devices, too.

HP is flat out trying to perfect memristor and a working prototype of The Machine should be ready by 2016.

However, in the meantime, Bresniker wants researchers and programmers to get familiar with how it will work well before then. His team aims to complete an operating system designed for The Machine, called Linux++, in June 2015. Software that emulates the hardware design of The Machine and other tools will be released so that programmers can test their code against the new operating system. Linux++ is intended to ultimately be replaced by an operating system designed from scratch for The Machine, which HP calls Carbon.

Programmers’ experiments with Linux++ will help people understand the project and aid HP’s progress, says Bresniker. He hopes to gain more clues about, for example, what types of software will benefit most from the new approach. The Machine will use a single kind of memory for both temporary and long-term data storage. Existing computers store their operating systems, programs, and files on either a hard disk drive or a flash drive. To run a program or load a document, data must be retrieved from the hard drive and loaded into a form of memory, called RAM, that is much faster but can’t store data very densely or keep hold of it when the power is turned off.

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