IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
1–10 of 37 posts
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#2Sweet, I attended a talk about this this spring in our university.
The one big question was about the enormous energy density in these cubes. It must some way or another get into them, which seemed quite impossible to do.
But, I for one hope this leads to some big leaps in performance that were previously not within reach for the foreseeable future.
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#3Could you imagine the graphics that are possible with a one petaflop computer? Simulation status right?
I'm praying we (humanity) don't nuke ourselves to death during some stupid WWIII type situation before we get there
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#4Does anyone know much about the practicalities of the chemistry behind this? I've almost finished looking at redox at high school.
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#5From the end of the article:
"But all of the above will not get electronics down to the energy-efficiency of the brain.
"That will require many more changes, including a move to analogue computation instead of digital.
"It will also involve breakthroughs in new non-Turing models of computation, for example based on an understanding of how the brain processes information."
What exactly does all this mean? How would moving from digital to analogue computation improve energy efficiency? And aren't the whole Turing vs. non-Turing models of the brain still up for serious debate?
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#6Is it just me, or is this article written by someone who is clueless? I read the whole thing, and wasn't able to extract a single piece of genuine information.
Either someone is gaming HN to make artificial up votes, or I need to find a different forum.
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#7"Their vision is that by 2060, a one petaflop computer that would fill half a football field today, will fit on your desktop."
Will it be able to run Crysis?
But seriously, I'd be even more interested in how these computers will be programmed. Any wild speculations?
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#8From the end of the article: "But all of the above will not get electronics down to the energy-efficiency of the brain. "That will require many more changes, including a move to analogue computation instead of digital. "It will also involve breakthroughs in new non-Turing models of computation, for example based on an understanding of how the brain processes information." What exactly does all this mean? How would mo…
Analog computing is dramatically more energy-efficient than digital because it needs less hardware. For example, you can store an analog value in a capacitor while storing a digital value requires a multi-bit register that is made of multiple transistors per bit. Analog multiplication can be done with an amplifier while digital multiplication requires thousands of transistors. The tradeoff is that digital computation is exact while analog computation contains noise which may accumulate through the computation.
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#9"Their vision is that by 2060, a one petaflop computer that would fill half a football field today, will fit on your desktop." Will it be able to run Crysis? But seriously, I'd be even more interested in how these computers will be programmed. Any wild speculations?
Brain-machine interface, obvi. That or strong AIs. :)
Re: IBM unveils computer fed by 'electronic blood'
#10Is it just me, or is this article written by someone who is clueless? I read the whole thing, and wasn't able to extract a single piece of genuine information. Either someone is gaming HN to make artificial up votes, or I need to find a different forum.
You are not alone in that opinion. From what I could glean, they are trying to address power distribution, and conversion efficiency, in large scale computer systems by integrating a Vanadium redox battery[1] directly into the chip. (And exploiting the cooling effect of the flowing electrolyte) It is a neat idea, badly described.