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Monday, June 9, 2008

The First Petaflop Supercomputer.

A milestone in computing was reached in the United States with the first supercomputer performing at petaflop speeds, or ten to the fifteenth power floating point operations per second. This major breakthrough is reported to have come from IBM's new supercomputer, codenamed Roadrunner, apparently a reference to the speedy bird which eludes Wily E. Coyote, or to the species in general. Roadrunner surpassed the next runner-up, a upgraded Blue Gene/L, also made by IBM, twice over.

The supercomputer makes uses of almost seven thousand ordinary processors about twelve thousand eight-core Cell processors to achieve its high speed.

Although an impressive record by itself, this is a major milestone because at petaflop speeds, a supercomputer can simulate things to much higher degree of accuracy than earlier supercomputers were previously capable. Such a computer could help simulate (or design) how molecules and compounds interact, such as in the design of new materials or in simulated protein folding. Therefore, a petaflop computer or higher could help produce novel new materials, from new substances for construction to more efficient solar panels to a room temperature superconductor. Or a supercomputer running at petaflop speeds can be used to gain greater insight into how various proteins in organisms--including humans--are made, and thus could be used to design new medicines or new treatments.

A petaflop computer is nearing the speeds necessary to simulate a human body, which is why this breakthrough is such a milestone from a technological Singularity standpoint. According to Kurzweil, often considered the father of the technological Singularity concept, a computer able to run at ten to the sixteenth power flops would be capable of simulating the human body, particularly the human brain. (The lower end of his estimate for human simulation is actually ten to the fourteenth power floating point operations per second, but he uses ten petaflops as a standard). Although some of Kurzweil's views are a tad loopy--such as trying to connect the Singularity to the formation of the elements, including hydrogen--in the realm of modern day Singularity, he makes some valid points.

Thus, a computer just ten times as powerful as Roadrunner could be able to simulate a human brain's functions. Although it would still need intelligent software, such a computer could start to match a human's intelligence, and the threshold of the Singularity would be reached.

Roadrunner, the first computer to reach petaflop speeds, could be a major point in history.

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Found this article interesting? Check out:
History: The Roadmap to the Future.
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History: The Roadmap to the Future--Latin America.

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