[0xbear]

I actually thing "NUMA SMP machines" are about due for a renaissance with the advent of extreme multicore CPUs. Next year we will see CPUs that run 32 cores (64 hyperthreads) per socket, and don't cost an arm and a leg. Current max is 28 cores per socket, at a staggering $13K per chip.

With relatively economical 64 core / 128 thread options with nearly unlimited RAM capacity appearing, a lot more workloads will "fit". Needless to say, single-node systems are much easier/cheaper/faster to get right.

[ChuckMcM]

The irony of clusters of many core NUMA SMP machines is not lost on me :-)

If things follow the previous patterns that will open up the market to a single/dual core, large memory, machine with a high speed networking and storage ports that is lower cost and lower power.