supercomputer

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Obama Orders Supercomputer 30 Times Faster Than All Others

President signs executive order calling for astonishingly fast exascale machine

(Newser) - If something called the National Strategic Computing Initiative sounds like a big deal, that's because it is. The White House yesterday announced an executive order from President Obama describing the NSCI plan, a joint effort of the Department of Energy, Defense Department, and the National Science Foundation, Motherboard reports.... More »

IBM's Supercomputer Whips Up Own BBQ Sauce

Watson's creation is delicious, humans say

(Newser) - What does a machine with no mouth, no taste buds, and no interest in consuming ribs know about barbecue sauce? Everything, according to IBM. The company says its Watson supercomputer has analyzed huge numbers of recipes and used its "cognitive cooking" abilities to create a delicious BBQ sauce, NPR... More »

A Supercomputer You Can Afford: What Is Watson?

IBM making a smarter version of our robot overlord available online

(Newser) - Bar trivia contests will never be the same. IBM will today announce a plan to make a more powerful version of its famous Watson supercomputer available online at a sliver of what access to the system has cost, the New York Times reports. Of course, the goal isn't really... More »

Supercomputer Simulates Human Brain for One Second

...or 1% of the human brain, anyway

(Newser) - Artificial intelligence can do some amazing things, but can it really replicate actual human brain activity? A group of Japanese researchers say the answer is yes, albeit pretty ponderously. In an experiment run on one of the world's fastest supercomputers, the researchers managed to completely simulate the actions of... More »

Top Supercomputer in 2009 Already Obsolete

Roadrunner will be studied, then dismantled

(Newser) - Just four years ago, a supercomputer known as Roadrunner was the world's fastest; yesterday, it went offline after being declared obsolete. The IBM machine was built to monitor US nuclear weapons, and in 2008 became the first "petaflop" computer: able to perform more than a quadrillion calculations per... More »

IBM's Watson to Start Dispensing Medical Advice

It teams with big insurer, hospital on two apps for doctors, insurers

(Newser) - Dr. Watson is accepting new patients. The Watson supercomputer is graduating from its medical residency and is being offered commercially to doctors and health insurance companies. IBM, the health insurer WellPoint, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center announced two Watson-based applications—one to help assess treatments for lung cancer and one... More »

World's Fastest Supercomputer Still American

Cray system known as 'Titan' takes top spot

(Newser) - The US still holds the crown for fastest supercomputer, but it's now a Cray XK7 system known as Titan that has overtaken the previous titleholder, the IBM Sequoia . US and German researchers found that Titan, funded by the Department of Energy and housed at the US government's Oak... More »

US Retakes Fastest Supercomputer Crown

IBM's Sequoia outperforms Japanese record holder

(Newser) - America can once again boast that it is home to the world's fastest supercomputer. IBM's Sequoia system knocked Japan's K Computer into second place after clocking in at a staggering 16.32 "petaflops"—that's 16 quadrillion calculations per second, reports the Wall Street Journal... More »

IBM Creates Chip That Works Like Human Brain

Chip could someday power computer that learns, handles complex tasks

(Newser) - IBM has created a prototype chip that mimics the workings of the human brain, simulating synapses, neurons, and axons in the hopes of creating a computer that can learn and think, the company announced today. So far these “cognitive computing chips” have only been put to simple tasks like... More »

Japanese Supercomputer Now No. 1 in World

Japan knocks China out of top spot

(Newser) - Japan is at the top of the computer heap for the first time in seven years, now that Fujitsu Co.’s supercomputer has bested that of a Chinese competitor . The “K Computer,” funded by the Japanese government, is the best-performing machine in the world, capable of handling... More »

Jeopardy Challenge Ends With Humans Crushed

Watson's next job: medical diagnostics

(Newser) - "I for one, welcome our new computer overlords," defeated Jeopardy contestant Ken Jennings wrote below his final answer as the game show's 3-day supercomputer challenge wrapped up. IBM's Watson finished way ahead with $77,147 while Jennings and Brad Rutter—the two most successful human contestants in Jeopardy... More »

Jeopardy Computer Trounces Humans On Day 2

Watson wins big despite naming Toronto as US city

(Newser) - Watson trounced its human opponents on the second day of the 3-day Jeopardy challenge, but humanity saved some face after the IBM supercomputer goofed on the final question. The category was US cities and the clue was "Its largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its... More »

Man Ties With Machine in Jeopardy Showdown

Humans fight back after IBM's Watson takes early lead

(Newser) - The first round of Jeopardy's three-game man versus supercomputer showdown finished Monday night with humanity having fended off the rise of the machine. Human player Brad Rutter, the game show's record money-winner, was tied with IBM supercomputer Watson at $5,000 at the close of play, AP reports. The other... More »

Supercomputer Hunts Child Porn Producers

Oak Ridge's Jaguar is developing algorithms for police

(Newser) - Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are devoting their considerable computer expertise and a million processor hours on their Jaguar supercomputer to help authorities track down people who post child pornography online, reports New Scientist . An advocacy group approached the federal scientists to help weed through the tremendous amount of... More »

China Overtakes US With Fastest Supercomputer

New system 'blows away' US best

(Newser) - A new Chinese supercomputer is the fastest in the world, able to perform mathematical operations much faster than the previous record-holder, a US system in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The system, Tianhe-1A, was recently subjected to the tests that serve as a benchmark for supercomputer rankings, reports the New York Times... More »

Through Sheer Power, Google Translate Gets It Right

Similar programs use 1B words, while Google plugs in 100B+

(Newser) - Score one for Google’s “don’t be evil” side as Web surfers reap the benefits of its excellent translation program—thanks to the sheer force of Google's web dominance. Machine translation is a particularly tricky computer problem that programmers now agree is most easily solved by feeding massive... More »

Scientist Smashes Pi Record

He calculates number to 2.7 trillion digits on his home PC

(Newser) - A French scientist shattered the record for calculated digits of Pi, working the number out to 2.7 trillion decimal places—and he did it with a home PC. Fabrice Bellard beat the previous record by 100 billion digits, using a new software algorithm he claims is 20 times faster... More »

Artificial Brain Could Be Just 10 Years Away

(Newser) - A functional artificial brain could be built within the next decade, leading scientist and brain-builder Henry Markram told a tech conference. Markram, who leads a project seeking to reverse engineer the mammalian brain from lab data, says his team has already duplicated parts of the rat brain, the BBC reports.... More »

Supercomputers Supercharge Research

Scientists with big questions to benefit more from DOE's two behemoths

(Newser) - It's easier than ever before to get some quality time with one of the most powerful computers on Earth. The Department of Energy has increased the performance of two of its supercomputers more than fivefold, making 900 million processor-hours available to scientists, reports Wired. Expect that boost to lead to... More »

Quantum Internet Gets Closer

New kind of Net would be automatically secure

(Newser) - A recent quantum computing breakthrough is a step towards creating a quantum Internet—which would be "automatically secure," a researcher told Technology Review. A Northwestern University professor has created a fundamental element of a quantum computer, a quantum logic gate, within an optical fiber, where previous gates used... More »

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