Google acquires Peakstream ?

This came as a surprise, but Google has never been predictable. The Register, which comes up with interesting "early news", reports that Google has acquired Peakstream. Peakstream, of course, is the company which started out targeting parallel computing on graphics chips and then rapidly expanded their tools to multicore x86 chips and other parallel systems. The team, the VCs, the Stanford connection and the promise of higher performance must have been a powerful mix which attracted Google. There is more on this from Reuters, which is usually more reliable than the Register. I have been a big fan of the Register and its relative the Inquirer, but their news is not always completely accurate. Their writing is however, highly entertaining and departs from the staid press prose. They do get a high percentage right well ahead of the rest of the channels :-) I am sure more confirmation and details will be available in the days to come.

This is a good example of how the Valley, startups, VCs and their networks work. I am sure if Peakstream was located in India or Australia with the same technology, this acquisition may have worked more slowly or not at all. But, then maybe they have the technology because they are in the Valley ? :-) Clearly, the rest of the world may take issue with that :-)

Interestingly, the Register also has a spotlight on shades of 1998 :-) Some interesting analogies !


Madan