HPCC Systems platform version 4.0 is out!

After almost two years of continuous development, version 4.0 of the HPCC Systems platform has finally been released, with an impressive number of exciting new features and capabilities!

Take, for example, the introduction of ECL language enhancements like the support for the new DICTIONARY associative lookup data structure (named after the eponymous data structure in Python), or the significant speed boost in distributed parallel linear algebra, critical to most Machine Learning algorithms, thanks to the integration of a Parallel Block BLAS subsystem. But possibly one of the most useful aspects of the new release is the ability to embed in ECL and run, code from other programming languages, such as Java, Javascript, Python and R, in addition to the existing C++ integration.

But the changes don’t stop in the underlying platform, and face lifts have been given to the user interfaces, including a production release of the Eclipse IDE ECL plugin, and a technology preview of the next generation ECL Watch, using the latest web technologies to deliver a more streamlined and consistent user interface.

On the Roxie front, support for JSON queries (in addition to the existing SOAP access) and improvements to the Roxie “Packages” file management make it easier than ever to support Roxie queries.

And the new “ECL Bundles” functionality deserves an honorific mention: now it’s very easy to package and distribute bundles of ECL capabilities (modules, functions, etc.) in a consistent manner, supporting encapsulation, versioning, dependencies, updates, licensing information and more. This should facilitate ECL code sharing both, internally and externally, and a public repository of these ECL bundles is already in the works.

4.0 just went out, and I’m already looking forward to what 5.0 will bring!

Flavio