TABB Group Defines Hardware Acceleration and Describes its Impact on Low-Latency Trading

Field-programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) and
Multi-core Processors Showcase the Three Hardware Types Used for Acceleration
NEW YORK & LONDON--(Business Wire)--
According to TABB Group`s new IT-centric research published today, "Hardware
Acceleration: Traders and Teraflops," hardware acceleration is the hybrid car of
trading systems. "Choosing financial-services hardware today often feels like
having to choose between driving a Corvette or driving a Prius," says Kevin
McPartland, senior analyst at TABB and author of the report. For most financial
firms, however, the right hardware is just as much about efficiency as it is
about speed. Horsepower is still critical as data volumes increase and
acceptable latency declines, but, he adds, "crunching numbers efficiently brings
with it many more benefits than just keeping up with the Goldmans."

By offloading certain tasks to specialty chips or optimizing code to run in
parallel on multiple cores, the endgame can be reached more quickly, less
expensively and by using less power, in some cases, in a much smaller footprint.
"In today`s economic environment, what CTO can argue with something that
improves performance and lowers costs?," he asks.

Although raw compute power remains critical on Wall Street, it is smart power
that will take things forward. Defined by TABB Group, hardware acceleration is
writing optimized code for the hardware architecture most suitable for a given
problem. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), graphical processing units
(GPUs) and multi-core processors showcase the three hardware types used for
acceleration gaining the most traction by financial services firms: programmable
chips, many-core processors and multicore processors.

Until recently, financial firms` IT departments ensured that their messaging and
analytical needs were being met by employing a horizontal-scaling model. "They
threw more hardware at the problem as the need for more capacity increased,"
McPartland says. Although commodity hardware is still relatively inexpensive, he
claims that the industry has reached a technological crossroads. "Software
cannot be optimized any more than it has been already, nor can the amount of
available data center space, power, cooling and money keep pace with major
financial services firms` demand for more and more compute power."

Technological innovation comes from two places - demand and technology for
technology`s sake. There is no lack of either on Wall Street, says McPartland.
"Traders will always want to get things done faster and technologists will never
stop loving technology. As hardware-acceleration technology becomes less
expensive and the return on investment becomes more obvious, the combination of
demand and innovation will result in unimaginable advancements. The question is
not whether we can get faster, but how and when?"

Based on in-depth conversations with financial markets participants at major
trading firms, execution venues and vendors, the 20-page TABB report defines
hardware acceleration beyond specialty chips, outlines key considerations for
selecting the approach most appropriate for a given project and lays out the
future of hardware acceleration for financial firms.

The Hardware Acceleration report can be accessed by TABB Group Research Alliance
clients and pre-qualified media at https://www.tabbgroup.com/Login.aspx. For an
executive summary or to purchase the report, please visit
http://www.tabbgroup.com, or write to info@tabbgroup.com.

Other recent related research publications from TABB Group include: Financial
Services Data Centers: Power, Proximity and Profit;The Value of a Millisecond:
Finding the Optimal Speed of a Trading Infrastructure; Single-Points-of-Failures
are One Thing: Minimizing Their Impact is Everything; and If Location Is
Everything, What About Co-Location?

About TABB Group

TABB Group is the financial markets industry`s only research and strategic
advisory firm focused exclusively on capital markets. Founded in 2003 and based
on the proven interview-based research methodology of "first-person knowledge"
developed by founder Larry Tabb, TABB Group analyzes and quantifies the
investing value chain from the fiduciary, investment manager, broker, exchange
and custodian, helping senior business leaders gain a truer understanding of
financial markets issues. For more information, visit www.tabbgroup.com.

martinrabkinink
Martin Rabkin, 914-420-5739
mrabkin@martinrabkinink.com

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