Tachyum’s Cloud Chip Of The Future & The End Of Moore’s Law

When most of us think about the future of the cloud and where data centers are headed, we think of a bright future with infinite scalability, unparalleled performance, unlimited flexibility and control, and endless possibilities. What we typically don’t consider is the energy impact of bigger, better, faster.

But we should. Because the statistics are troubling. Today, worldwide data centers are consuming enormous amounts of power; by some estimates, two percent of the entire earth. And this number is doubling every five years.

During our latest RoadCast we met up with Rado Danilak, Co-Founder & CEO of Tachyum, who noted that these type of statistics are troubling for many reasons, but mainly because without power the cloud really can’t function.

This is why Danilak’s latest startup is focused on power efficiency along with cost reductions in the data center by improving the performance of nanometer-size devices. Tachyum is a semiconductor company with a cloud chip solution that can offer 10 to 15 times lower power consumption than existing solutions, and at a fraction of the cost.

The company is truly thinking out of the box when it comes to modern data centers. In our video interview, Danilak outlines several use cases and possibilities that Tachyum is enabling, including data centers at the edge, which dramatically reduce costs and power consumption while lowering latency by bringing the data center closer to end users. Tachyum’s solution aims to help growing data centers reduce their costs, lower power consumption, while at the same time improving performance.

Data Center Growth Is Hitting The Power Wall

Danilak has a long history of success in this area. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of Skyera, which developed ultra-dense solid-state storage systems for scale-out cloud and enterprise data centers. Skyera was acquired by HGST and Western Digital in 2014. Before that, Danilak co-founded SandForce, which delivered solid-state storage controllers that enabled MLC flash to be more widely used. SandForce was acquired by LSI in 2011. Danilak also worked for Nvidia and Toshiba, earning over 100 patents.

During our talks with Danilak, we learned just how grim the outlook for cloud data centers really is. In this video, the CEO points out that while everyone loves the cloud, what most don’t realize is that it’s growing at an unsustainable rate – over 15 percent every year. Danilak told us that  just last year, worldwide data centers consumed 40 percent more energy than all of Great Britain and produced more carbon emissions than all of the world’s airlines combined.

This massive growth is simply not sustainable. At some point, data center growth will hit the power wall, slowing or perhaps even stopping advancement and evolution of the cloud, says Danilak.

In the past, this type of rapid growth was offset by Moore’s Law. Watch the video to hear Danilak explain why this is no longer a reliable solution.

Data Centers And The End Of Moore’s Law

In our final video with Tachyum, Danilak delves deeper into Moore’s Law and how the data center power consumption problem essentially means the end of Gordon Moore’s famous prediction.

Danilak also explains how Tachyum is approaching this problem to unlock the improvements in the performance plateau. It’s a complex yet interesting problem that affects both hardware and software. And that’s where Tachyum’s cloud chip innovation is coming into play.

Is Moore’s Law truly dead? Learn more at tachyum.com.