Results 1 to 2 of 2
  1. #1
    Sagan's Avatar Carl Sagan
    Forum Addiction:

    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Gender
    Male
    Location
    SOL System
    Posts
    5,381
    I'm feeling
    ContentContent
    Mentioned
    20 Post(s)

    WOW look science wasn't spambot attacked.. anyway A Supercomputer Fit to Dominate th

    A Supercomputer Fit to Dominate the Cosmos



    It may not be self-aware (yet) but this computing monster is ready to take over the world. Well, at least a telescope in Chile.

    Say hello to the correlator for the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submilimeter Array, or ALMA. The correlator is the computer that runs at the backend of an array of radio telescopes called an interferometer. It, very basically, combines all the signals of the antennas so that it can function as one single telescope.

    The correlator was largely constructed in the building right across from where I did a lot of my graduate work at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia. I used to take any excuse, usually a visiting tour group, to gaze at the supercomputing monstrosity, although they were only working on it in sections. The picture above gives you a better sense of its full size.

    Though large (134 million processors) and fast (17 quadrillion operations per second), this computer has just one purpose: to suck in all of the data from ALMA’s 66 dishes and transform it into data that can then be sent to the astronomers to calibrate and analyze. The correlator gives the interferometer its power to see incredibly fine detail and small structures, such as protoplanetary disks and distant star-forming galaxies.

    More:
    http://news.discovery.com/space/astr...mkcpgn=rssnws1
    http://youtu.be/zSgiXGELjbc

    "A still more glorious dawn awaits
    Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
    A morning filled with 400 billion suns
    The rising of the milky way"

    "The sky calls to us
    If we do not destroy ourselves
    We will one day venture to the stars" -Carl Sagan

  2. #2
    Monotony's Avatar Undisputed Supreme Ruler of the Universe
    Forum Addiction:

    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Gender
    Male
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    2,473
    I'm feeling
    ExhaustedExhausted
    Mentioned
    1 Post(s)
    I need one of those things for gaming.

Made with <3
Anxiety Space is not a replacement for a fully qualified doctor.