Convey Computer

About Convey Computer

Convey Computer operated as a specialized technology firm in the high-performance computing (HPC) market, focusing on overcoming challenges related to performance, power consumption, and programmability. Founded in 2006 by Bruce Toal and Steve Wallach, the company was established in Richardson, Texas. The founders brought extensive experience from previous ventures in the computer industry, notably from Convex Computer Corporation, a company they were executives at which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 1995. Their background in developing vector supercomputers directly informed Convey's strategic direction.

The company's core offering was a pioneering hybrid-core computing system. This architecture integrated standard, off-the-shelf Intel® Xeon® processors with reconfigurable Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) from Xilinx® in a tightly coupled, shared-memory model. This design allowed for the creation of customized instruction sets, or "personalities," tailored to accelerate specific, computationally intensive application portions, such as graph analytics and bioinformatics algorithms. The system aimed to provide the performance of customized hardware while retaining the simpler programming model and lower costs of commodity systems. For clients in sectors like life sciences, government, defense, and advanced analytics, this translated into significant application speed-ups and reduced energy costs compared to large clusters of standard servers.

Convey's business model was centered on the sale of its hardware systems, including the HC-1 and HC-2 series, and the licensing of its intellectual property. The company provided development kits that enabled customers to create their own unique FPGA configurations to optimize their specific workloads. This IP-centric approach was managed through a granular licensing system, allowing Convey to ship standardized hardware and then remotely enable specific features and functionalities based on customer purchases. After raising $58.6 million through four funding rounds from investors like Intel Capital and Xilinx, Convey Computer was acquired by Micron Technology in March 2015. The acquisition was a strategic move for Micron to integrate Convey's expertise and technology into its Advanced Computing Solutions division, enhancing its capabilities in memory-driven application performance.