Google buys Peakstream, to boost computing power

June 6, 2007 | Matt Marshall

Peakstream, a Redwood City, Calif. company that sells software for building applications on multiple-processor chips, has been acquired by Google.

The amount was undisclosed. Peakstream had raised $23 million from Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital over the past two years, the latest round coming nine months ago (see our coverage).

The news was first covered by The Register.

Peakstream’s software seeks to improve the performance of applications running on multi-core chips.

According to the Register, coders will find the technology useful for avoiding complex, parallel code while still taking advantage of products such as GPGPUs (general purpose GPUs) from Nvidia and AMD/ATI and even multi-core x86 processors.

Google said in a statement: “We look forward to providing them with additional resources as they continue developing high performance applications for modern multi-core systems.”

This is significant because Google has so far built its server system itself from off-the-shelf parts, including relying on basic x86 chips — and so the Peakstream purchase may signal a change by Google to start using the more high-performance, complex chips.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.