Turn That PC Into a Supercomputer

[DeadAddict]

I thought this was cool when I read it. but I am still wondering if it is worth the time to actually bother doing anything with it

A small chip-design firm will unveil a new processor Tuesday it says will transform ordinary desktop PCs and laptops into supercomputers. The new chip is a parallel processor capable of performing 25 billion floating-point operations per second, or 25 gigaflops.


http://www.wired.com/news/technology...ory_page_prev2

[Deaflamb]

I know this probably isn't relevant, but I wonder hot such a machine would run. My poor PIV labtop gets hot when I leave it on more than an hour. In the article they mention the Earth Simulator, found site about that which is pretty interesting. http://www.nec.com/global/features/index9.html

I've read that there is some sort of theory predicting the rate at which processors are developed, I wonder if this chip is in sync with that theory. I belive is has been pretty accurate so far.

DeafLamb

EDIT: Opps, missed the page 2 link. You'll see

[DeadAddict]

Most likely it is If they want to start turning every computer into a powerhouse system they should have some sort of advanced cooling system that is much better then what is on todays processors.

[Deaflamb]

I agree with the advanced cooling systems. I know some people that have built some pretty interesting things. One friend who was also into cars built a custome case out of some car parts and used water cooling through the car's radiater which he mounted above his desk. A radiater fan was then hooked up to a motor that recived power via a wall outlet. Made a lot of noise but as far as I know his machine never overheated.

I doubt such a setup would work in business setting, but it looks damn cool.

DeafLamb

[allenb1963]

ClearSpeed said the new chip is also very low-power, operating at about 2 watts, which would allow it to run off a laptop battery and wouldn't require special cooling.

"At 3 watts, you could put it in a PCMCIA card," said McIntosh-Smith. "With two chips on a PC Card, you can have 50 gigaflops on a laptop, running off a battery. That's equivalent to a small Linux cluster on your notebook."

So much for the special cooling needs...

[DeadAddict]

Heheh sounds like he is a mad scientist But I bet it is cool to look at in spite of the noise it makes

[gore]

Good God! Thats awesome! I know my AMD box gets so hot that sometimes I think of using my ex GFs heart as a heat sink for it.

[Deaflamb]

I had one other friend that mounted his motherboard inside a mini-refregerator like the type you find in hotel rooms. The only problem was that it was an old fridge, and about a month of having it running the compressor stopped working. He didn't notice untill his computer wouldn't start cause the board was so hot.

The fridge with no cooling trapped all the heat that the machine created. It was a valient attempt though, even though i'm sure it has been attempted before.

[DeadAddict]

I believe that I have seen some pictures of peoples systems that have put their computers in all kinds of odd things such as in a wooden desk drawer, a milk crate and inside a old CRT monitor and the funny thing is that they all run perfectly fine with no problems what so ever.

[allenb1963]

Originally posted here by gore
Good God! Thats awesome! I know my AMD box gets so hot that sometimes I think of using my ex GFs heart as a heat sink for it.

Let me send you my ex-wife's heart instead....even in the heat of passion it only got to about 10 degrees above absolute zero...