Convey’s Hybrid-Core Computers: Personality.

The Convey HC-1 can adapt to different workloads, with personalities thoroughly optimized for a particular application such as bioinformatics, computer-aided engineering, data mining, seismic processing, simulations, and more.

Personalities are extensions to the x86 instruction set that are implemented in hardware and optimize performance of specific portions of an application. For example, a personality designed for seismic processing may implement 32-bit complex arithmetic instructions — and at performance levels well beyond that of a commodity processor.

Through Convey's proprietary adaptive architecture, servers can dynamically and transparently reload different "personalities” (instruction sets) that are optimized for different applications. This allows the full capabilities of the system to be harnessed for specific applications. The ability to adapt the architecture to different applications means the Convey servers can be repurposed “on the fly”— making them extremely flexible in mixed-use environments.

Beyond the personalities already created for certain applications, Convey provides tools in a "personality development kit" (PDK) that allow for the creation of new application-oriented architectures for existing and emerging applications.