DARPA Dives into Graph Analytics

New processor could change the way big data is managed in the field.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected five organizations to participate in its Hierarchical Identify Verify Exploit (HIVE) program, which was originally announced last summer. According to DARPA, the purpose of HIVE is to “… develop a powerful new data-handling and computing platform specialized for analyzing and interpreting huge amounts of data with unprecedented deftness.”

More specifically, HIVE has the goal of creating a graph analytics processor that “… will integrate the power of graphical representations with traditional data formats and processing techniques.”

DARPA believes a more powerful graphics analytics processor could lead to a thousandfold improvement in processing efficiency, which could enable “real-time identification of strategically important relationships as they unfold in the field rather than relying on after-the-fact analyses in data centers.”

Participating organizations include Intel, Qualcomm, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Georgia Tech, and Northrop Grumman.