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Apple moves to third-generation Siri back-end, built on open-source Mesos platform

Apple is now on its third-generation system for handling Siri queries, moving to the open source Mesos platform, according to the Mesosphere blog. Apple reportedly made the announcement at the Bay Area Mesos meetup last week.

During a presentation, Apple engineers said that the switch to Mesos would reduce latency, assist scalability, and made it easier to deploy new services as Siri’s capabilities are expanded … 

The engineers said that Siri comprises around 100 services on a Mesos cluster spanning many thousands of nodes. Siri’s move to Mesos – also used by other large tech companies, including Twitter and eBay – represents the company’s first move away from traditional infrastructure for the intelligent assistant service, they said.

Twitter’s Chris Aniszczyk tweeted a series of photos from the event, including a somewhat blurry one showing a simplified overview of Apple’s Mesos cluster architecture.

One trivia point mentioned is the story behind the name of Apple’s custom Mesos scheduler.

[It’s] called J.A.R.V.I.S., which is short for Just A Rather Very Intelligent Scheduler. It’s named after Tony Stark’s intelligent computer assistant in the Iron Man movies (and technically, I’m told, his human butler in the old comic books).

Apple created a new Siri tips website earlier this month as it launched the service in nine more countries, and of course prepared for people to use it on the Apple Watch.

Via MacStories. Main photo: Sunil Shah.

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Comments

  1. mgasaemgasaemanuel91 - 9 years ago

    Reblogged this on weblablog.

  2. drhalftone - 9 years ago

    Siri will still suck.

    • jedwards87 - 9 years ago

      Siri does not suck, but thanks for playing.

      • Bryan Hough - 9 years ago

        Ive used All 3 major mobile platforms extensively over the past 8 months to a year. I can safely say that Siri does indeed suck when compared to Google Now or Cortana. I know that this is a matter of opinion but an earnest argument for Siri would be VERY hard to make.

      • Siri DOES suck. It’s a complete fn joke.

    • therackett - 9 years ago

      …as my buddy with a new S6 goes in circles trying to get “OK Google” to work properly.

      • Bryan Hough - 9 years ago

        Samsung removed the capability for OK Google to work outside of the Google App. That’s why I stick with Motorola and Nexus devices. I dont need Samsung meddling with Google’s fine work. Touchwiz be damned.

    • rwanderman - 9 years ago

      Siri might not be as good as its competition in all aspects, point taken, but folks who use iOS use Siri and we’re quite happy to be in Apple’s iOS ecosystem, which includes Siri.

      • rwanderman - 9 years ago

        Glad you found what works for you. Now, maybe consider allowing others to use what works for them without using UPPER CASE to shout that what works for you should work for others. To each his or her own.

      • rwanderman - 9 years ago

        I said nothing about Android, you did. Get a life and move on, you obviously have no business here.

    • drhalftone - 9 years ago

      No one is more into the Apple eco-system than me. So I say this from extensive first-hand experience, Siri sucks. Anyone who says different is simply being an denier. That’s not say that Google’s or MS’s voice command service is better. I don’t have any experience with the competition since I’m so into the Apple eco-system. But as a service, Siri sucks. I don’t see it getting any better any time soon.

  3. bennynihon - 9 years ago

    Now they just need to update that voice so it sounds a tad more natural

    • 89p13 - 9 years ago

      I wish you had the choice of the current Siri or the Jarvis voices.

      • therackett - 9 years ago

        I’m sure Apple is dying to cut Disney/Marvel and Paul Bettany a massive check every month…just so you can feel like Iron Man.

        Let’s get a proper 2.1 amp charger to come with the iPhone first, so it charges in a reasonable amount of time.

    • rnc - 9 years ago

      Can you name a better computer voice?

      No, you can’t, nice try, tough, iHater.

      • bennynihon - 9 years ago

        iHater? I have 2 of virtually every Apple product there is. But I also call it how I see it.

    • I use British male voice in Siri and it sounds totally natural to me. I don’t know what version were you using but it definitely was the version when the Siri was new and in beta.

  4. rwanderman - 9 years ago

    Siri has improved consistently since its launch. Or, better put, I’ve learned how to use it better at the same time that its back end has improved. While not perfect it’s quite good at this point and straight dictation is, for me, almost always spot on when I have a decent connection via cell or wifi. Bravo to the folks who are constantly tinkering with Siri behind the scenes.

    • Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

      What is amazing to me is how much it has improved on Siri’s debu hardware. Obviously my 4s hasn’t changed at all so it’s incredible the improvements have all been on the backend. I’m sure if I had LTE it would’ve even better.

      • rwanderman - 9 years ago

        Right, I’m using it on a 5S and it’s fantastic. I think most of what makes it work is back end so as long as the hardware has the minimum requirements, which debuted as you say on the 4S, it’ll be fine.

  5. Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 9 years ago

    I wonder if this is any prep that will lead to seeing a Siri Api at wwdc. Siri was a nice to have on a smartphone has a lot more potential on the watch.

    There is the start of it with home kit but it’s limited to preset actions like turning nicknamed hardware on or off. Would be pretty cool if you could complete 3rd party specific actions in right from the watch.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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