Science
Related: About this forumNew Type Of Computer Capable Of Calculating 640TBs Of Data In One Billionth Of A Second
?itok=LfFkXYYOLet me introduce The Machine- HPs latest invention that could revolutionize the computing world. According to HP, The Machine is not a server, workstation, PC, device or phone but an amalgamation of all these things. Its designed to be able to cope with the masses of data produced from the Internet of Things, which is the concept of a future network designed to connect a variety of objects and gadgets.
In order to handle this flurry of information it uses clusters of specialized cores as opposed to a small number of generalized cores. The whole thing is connected together using silicon photonics instead of traditional copper wires, boosting the speed of the system whilst reducing energy requirements. Furthermore, the technology features memristors which are resistors that are able to store information even after power loss.
The result is a system six times more powerful than existing servers that requires eighty times less energy. According to HP, The Machine can manage 160 petabytes of data in a mere 250 nanoseconds. And, whats more, this isnt just for huge supercomputers- it could be used in smaller devices such as smartphones and laptops. During a keynote speech given at Discover, chief technology officer Martin Fink explained that if the technology was scaled down, smartphones could be fabricated with 100 terabytes of memory.
HP envisages a variety of future applications for this technology in numerous different settings, from business to medicine. For example, it could be possible for doctors to compare your symptoms or DNA with patients across the globe in an instant and without breaching privacy, improving health outcomes.
More at http://www.iflscience.com/technology/new-type-computer-capable-calculating-640tbs-data-one-billionth-second-could .
Towlie
(5,324 posts)It's already possible to do many wonderful things without breaching privacy.
But...
tridim
(45,358 posts)The next 20 years of computing is going to blow minds.
bananas
(27,509 posts)"this isnt just for huge supercomputers- it could be used in smaller devices such as smartphones"
Hooray for software bloat! We can go back to phones that look like this:
Martin Cooper photographed in 2007 with his 1973 handheld mobile phone prototype
postulater
(5,075 posts)Live long and prosper.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
tclambert
(11,085 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Now we can make them faster, but they are still mistakes
Javaman
(62,521 posts)"Hey Baby, want to kill some humans?"
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)The Internet will always be too slow for We the People.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)But only if you double the RAM and bump up the disk space.
EvolveOrConvolve
(6,452 posts)Oh wait, it's just the smell of horseshit wafting our way from the HP marketing department. And the title? "Calculating 640TBs of data in one billionth of a second"? C'mon, what does that even mean? The sort of bandwidth required to manage that amount of data in a stream that delivers its payload in a billionth of a second is impossible, and I won't even go into the number of processors that would be required to perform even basic "calculations" on it.
I work at a semiconductor company, and the things HP is claiming aren't possible with current technology. Even technology 2 or 3 generations down the road don't come close. It's ridiculous.
Here's a good Cringely-worthy dismantling:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/hewlett-packards-machine-vaporware-meet-empty-suit-244265
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Seemed like electrons traveling under one foot wouldn't have time to process 640 terabytes of info.
..In this day and age ??
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)That's pretty much how the human brain is constructed, and why it does so well at processing so much data. The failure to understand that architecture, and the belief that the brain is "sort of" a general-purpose processor has held AI back since the beginning.
This is a very promising development, regardless of how the marketing droids at HP have mis-described it.