World's Most Powerful Supercomputers  

Posted by Karan Vora in


Ever wondered which are the most powerful supercomputers of all time? Supercomputers which with their supersonic speed broke various computing barriers and also brought in revolution in varied fields like nuclear science, medicine, environment and weather. The computing power of these computers are way beyond our imagination.

Cray-1
Cray-1 was the world’s fastest machine that was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. Cray-1 boasted a speed of 160 million floating-point operations per second. The first model of the Cray-1 (Cray-1A) weighed 5.5 tons.


Cray-2
Launched in 1985, the machine held the title of the world’s fastest supercomputer between 1985-1989. Cray-2 was capable of 1.9 gigaflops peak performance. Cray-2 was predominantly developed for the United States Departments of Defense and Energy. Due to the use of liquid cooling, it was nicknamed `Bubbles’.


Connection Machine-5 (CM-5)
Launched in 1991, Connection Machine-5 (CM-5) held the crown for the world’s fastest supercomputer in 1992. The machine intended for artificial intelligence applications and symbolic processing found remarkable success in the field of computational science.


Fujitsu Numerical Wind Tunnel
Known as the Numerical Wind Tunnel, the machine was built by Fujitsu and Japan’s National Aerospace Laboratory. The machine was used to simulate wind turbulence on airplanes and in spacecraft as well as to forecast weather.

ASCI Red
The fastest computer from June 1997 to June 2000, ASCI Red was collaboration between Intel Corp and Sandia Labs. It was the first computer to break the teraflops barrier, which after the processor upgrade passed 2 teraflops.

ASCI White
ASCI White, an IBM system, replaced ASCI-Red as the fastest supercomputer in 2000. ASCI White held the spot for world’s fastest supercomputer for two years from 2000-2002. It was capable of computing 12.3 trillion operations per second.

The Earth Simulator
Built by NEC for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute and the Japan Marina Science and Technology Center, the Earth Simulator (ES) was the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004.

Blue Gene/L
Currently the seventh fastest supercomputer in the world, IBM BlueGene/L held the title of world’s fastest supercomputer for four years from 2004 to 2008. The supercomputer is located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s. BlueGene/L (BGL) clocked 478.2 trillion floating operations per second.

IBM Roadrunner
IBM Roadrunner was crowned No. 1 in June 2008 after becoming the first supercomputer to break one petaflop/s. IBM’s Roadrunner managed 1.042 petaflops. The supercomputer is located at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Jaguar
The world’s fastest supercomputer according to TOP500 supercomputer list of 2009 is Cray XT5, also known as Jaguar. Jaguar bagged the No. 1 spot, beating IBM’s Roadrunner, who held the top crown from 2008 to 2009. It can perform more than 1 quadrillion calculations per second.

K Computer
The title of the most powerful computer in the world has been won by a machine in japan named “K”. The machine features in the fastest and most powerful systems around the world.The powerful computer is used to run math models for engineering and scientific research.

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Dialing by Thinking  

Posted by Karan Vora

Usually we dial phone numbers by pressing the button. A group of scientists at the University of California, San Diego, United States (U.S.) develop a system that lets users make phone calls just by thinking about it.Just think of the phone number you called, and you are directly connected to that number. This is not a illusionist scene in the show, but it happened thanks to a recent discovery.

phone dial Dial Your Phone By Thinking The Number

As a new invention, with quite different from development to make steady connection, the method is claimed to be quite accurate. The developers are optimistic, this finding could be very useful for people with disabilities or those who require more hands-free function when dialing phone numbers.

Tzyy-Ping Jung who led the research, explains that the system he developed with his team, to track electrical activity in the brain by means of a special headband equipped with electrodes and Bluetooth.Users have to use a headband that connect to this computer will be shown a series of numbers from 0 to 9 on the screen.

Each digit is thinking blinks and detected by the electrode. Furthermore, Bluetooth will know it as the number to call and forward it to your mobile phone, dialing phone numbers to make calls. “The level of accuracy has reached 70 to 85 percent,” claims Jung. “From our experience, anyone can do it. Some people have a higher accuracy than others,” says Jung

However, this finding is still a prototype and needs further development. But at least, this shows the potential for the development of devices with growing minds based interface. Hopefully when it is work, it can help people dialing phone numbers.

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Paper Phone - The Next Generation Smartphone  

Posted by Karan Vora



Paper Phone, A prototype smart phone made ​​of electronic paper has been created by scientists. Predicted, smart phones that circulated in the future will be like this shape of paper phone. Phone called Paper Phone is claimed to perform the same function with the phone in general. From make calls, send messages, play music to display e-book.
This device is made by scientists at the Human Media Lab, Queen’s University, Canada and Arizona State University’s Motivational Environments Research. Paper Phone functions can be run with bent corners or touch screen.
“All the (mobile phone) will look like this paper phone in five years,” claims its creator, Dr. Roel Vertegaal
1 millimeter-thick prototype uses e-ink technology, similar to those used gadgets Amazon Kindle book reader. 3.75 inch sized screen itself.
“Paperless office will be realized. Everything can be stored digitally and you can put the computer such as a stack of paper,” Vertegaal claims.
Not just paper phone for mobile phones, a bigger version is expected to replace the function of paper to store data in the office.

paper-phone

This technology works on a 9.5 cm diagonal thin film flexible E-Ink display which has a superb bending capabilities. If you are having doubt about its features then I want to tell you that it will have all the features of a normal smartphones have. You can play mp3, read e-books, browse apps and do lots of other things.

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