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IBM Breaks U.S. Patent Record IBM earned 3,415 US patents in 2003, breaking the record for patents received in a single year. One noted example is automated business continuity and recovery, which enables high-speed recovery and relocation of IBM eServer zSeries computer workloads in response to an unanticipated system failure or disaster. (Patent 6636988) (Jan. 2004 Linux Electrons)
Qwerks of History What will systems software look like in 10 years, or 35? Jef Raskin, the first architect of the Macintosh, offers the idea of a "zooming space" to replace operating systems and various other kinds of programs. David Gelernter's "lifestreams" model arranges documents in sequences and subsequences. Don Norman solves the complexity problem at a stroke: If computers are too hard to use replace them by more-specialized "information appliances". (Dec. 2003 American Scientist)
The Trouble wiith Software Surprisingly, given the many afflictions of contemporary computer software, there is more reason for optimism than one might expect. With XST-based software technology, the computing industry can look forward to the day when software logic will be as error-free and provably-correct as hardware logic. (pdf file) (Aug. 2003 Eagle Creek)
IBM finds ally for supercomputer-on-a-chip At the heart of the TRIPS architecture is a new concept called "block-oriented execution. A processor based on TRIPS will be able to perform large blocks of calculations simultaneously. Ultimately, IBM hopes to use technology the program develops in its commercial mainframes and servers. (Aug. 2003 CNET News)
IBM plans world's most powerful Linux supercomputer The Opteron systems will collectively deliver a theoretical peak performance of 8.5 trillion calculations per second, and the Itanium 2 systems will add 2.7 trillion calculations per second for a total theoretical peak performance for the entire cluster of 11.2 trillion calculations per second. (Jul. 2003 ComputerWorld)
IBM Nanotechnology Goes 3-D IBM is unveiling another step forward: A latticework of magnets and semiconductors only billionths of a meter across that assembles itself in a beaker. The properties of the material can be modified, opening up a range of applications in microelectronics and communications. (Jun. 2003 Forbes)
A Chip War of EPIC Proportions While the RISC manufacturers seem to be on the ropes, they are certainly not dying out any time soon. Sun is currently working on a UltraSPARC chip that takes 6 to 8 cores and puts them on one die. IBM is also looking at doing multi-core processing with its upcoming PowerPC 5 and PowerPC 6 lines. They see their Z-series as just as good or better than anything that Itanium can offer. (May 2003 Internet.com)
IBM Expects Moore's Law to Persist IBM has built a big molecule that can act rather like Babbage's computer as originally conceived with balls rolling down paths and passing through gates, except of course that the balls in this instance are atoms. This on its own could increase the power of computers by six orders of magnitude. (May 2003 IT Director)
IBM details Blue Gene supercomputer Blue Gene is a completely oddball, you've-never-seen-anything-like-this-before design. It will run Linux and have more than 65,000 computing nodes. The ultimate goal is to create a system that can perform one quadrillion calculations per second, or one petaflop. (May 2003 News.com)
Degree of Difference Sorts Data Researchers have found an efficient way to sort inconsistent sets of data into groups that share some similarity. Key to the method is comparing the edit distance, or the minimum number of elementary edit operations—like deletions, insertions, substitutions—needed to transform one piece of data into another. (Apr. 2003 Technology Review)
Supercomputer smashes world speed record The Earth Simulator at the Marine Science and Technology Center in Kanagawa, notched up 35.61 teraflops. The speed is five times faster than that recorded by the previous record holder, IBM's ASCI White, which achieved a benchmark of 7.23 teraflops. (Apr. 2002 New Scientist)
Using 'Nature's Toolbox,' a DNA Computer Solves a Complex Problem The problem required a set of 20 values that satisfy a complex tangle of relationships. While the time needed to solve problems of this class (called "NP-complete problems") increases exponentially (2, 4, 8, 16 ... ) for serial computers, it increases only linearly (2, 4, 6, 8 ... ) for parallel computers. (Mar. 2002 NASA press release)
IBM loses supercomputer crown The new chart topper is a 3,024-processor Compaq machine called Terascale based at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Centre. The Terascale can perform six trillion calculations per second. It relegated IBM's Asci White into second place following a chart shake-up based on a more sophisticated way of ranking of supercomputers. (Nov. 2001 BBC)
Why the future doesn't need us The 21st-century technologies - genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) - are so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses. Most dangerously, for the first time, these accidents and abuses are widely within the reach of individuals or small groups. They will not require large facilities or rare raw materials. Knowledge alone will enable the use of them. (Wired Apr. 2000)
