IBM will build a large computer

2000/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Hardwarea

IBM wants to build for 2005 a giant computer a thousand times more powerful than the well-known computer Deep Blue, which beat chess player Kasparov in 1997. Blue Gene, which will cost $100 million, will perform one billion mathematical operations per second (the most powerful computer of the time performs 2 billion operations per second). The computer will have one million microprocessors that will work in parallel and each of them will perform one billion operations per second.

Each microprocessor will perform very simple operations and the computer will be able to perform 8 million processes in parallel, with a current limit of 5,000 processes. You will also be able to correct any errors that appear in performing the calculations. The giant computer will occupy 200 square meters and will be built in New York.

And for what billions and billions? Blue will be used
to understand the rules that control the protein gene. Proteins, following the body's electrical and chemical stimuli, form complex structures that researchers want to know accurately, since the appearance of protein is often a barrier between health and disease.

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