Computing Where Data Resides
Computational storage is starting to gain traction as system architects come to grips with the rising performance, energy and latency impacts of moving large amounts of data between processors and hierarchical memory and storage.
According to IDC, the global datasphere will grow from 45 zettabytes in 2019 to 175 by 2025. But that data is essentially useless unless it is analyzed or some amount of compute is applied to it, and moving that data to the CPU takes more energy that the compute itself. Approaches such as computational storage attempt to mitigate those issues.
Numerous comparisons have been made between the value of data and oil. “Both data and oil are reasonably useless unless you do something with them,” said Kartik Srinivasan, director of marketing for Xilinx’s data center group. “Raw oil cannot be put in your car. You need to...
