[ajross]

Not a 32 core computer. It's 8 4-core SoCs with independent storage connected by a 5 Gbps network switch. Not a useless machine (it's a cheap way to buy lots of DRAM bandwidth, I'll note), but not what the headline is selling as.

[rbanffy]

With the right software and if you don't look it from too close, it can be considered a single computer.

We've been doing things like these for decades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMScluster

Yes, I'm that old.

[lvh]

Did the headline change? The one I see now just says that it's 32 cores in a tiny box, not that it's one machine specifically.

[sciurus]

The site itself is a little misleading. It says "The Baserock Slab is a multi-processor server". To me, calling something a multi-processor server implies that a single OS instance has access to all the hardware. Instead, this is eight independent systems in a single chassis. Which is still awesome for that suggested use cases, such as an ARM build system.

[ajross]

I didn't say it was factually incorrect, I said (implied, I guess) it was misleading. You're seriously saying you read that and understood it meant 8 (!) distinct machines on one board?

[lvh]

I read it and understood it was a lot of cores in a small box. I presumed they weren't actually one machine, yes; but I didn't feel the headline was trying to imply anything either way.

[rys]

So each quad-core SoC appears to the outside world as its own system and only communicates via Ethernet? Not useless at all, but it's not clear how the SoCs are presented.

[rjek]

Yeah, it's eight individual systems with two very fast Ethernet links to an on-board managed switch.