Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
UMBC Supercomputing Center Eyes Socio-Econ Problems
8/27/2007
The University of Maryland-Baltimore County and IBM said they would collaborate to build a facility dedicated to research on aerospace, defense, financial services, medical imaging, and weather/climate change prediction.Researchers called the Multicore Computing Center (MCC) an "orchestra" of one of the world's most powerful supercomputing chips.
They were referring to the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.), jointly developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba.
The processor is used in products such as Sony's PlayStation 3. Cell processors are capable of powering image and video-intensive tasks like virtual reality, as well as simulations and imaging for aerospace, medicine, and defense.
Researchers said they would face a challenge making the processors work together. "Cell processors are groups of eight very fast, independent but simple PCs with their own tiny memory all on a single chip each with its own leader," said Milt Halem, director of the MCC and professor of computer science at UMBC.
"The challenge is choreographing all the chips to work efficiently in parallel. It's like a distributed orchestra with 224 musicians and 28 conductors connected with headphones trying to play Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 together."
Read More:
Paul McCloskey is a contributing editor for the Campus Technology group of publications.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Sentrigo Offers Help for Database Patching Woes
Sentrigo Inc. released its new Hedgehog vPatch database security software product Tuesday. The product addresses patching inconsistencies that seem to affect busy Oracle database administrators (DBAs), who don't always have time to test and patch. However, users of Microsoft SQL Server database in the enterprise can take a lesson here too.
- Starfish Launches Higher Ed Retention Solution
Software provider Starfish Retention Solutions has announced the upcoming launch of its first product, Starfish Office Hours. The company said this will be the first in a series of products intended to help higher education institutions improve retention and graduation rates by aiding in the delivery of programs designed to help at-risk student populations.
- Unisys Offers Free Unified Communications Trial
Unisys announced Monday that it is offering companies a free 30-day unified communications trial using Microsoft solutions. The offer is currently available through Microsoft's sales personnel.
- New Mexico Launches Statewide eLearning Initiative
As part of its Innovative Digital Education and Learning initiative (IDEAL-NM), New Mexico is launching a statewide program to standardize on a single electronic learning platform--Blackboard--spanning K-12, higher education, adult education, and government. The initiative will also support a new statewide virtual high school.
- North Carolina Adopts Blackboard for Higher Ed
The University of North Carolina and the North Carolina Community College System have signed on with Blackboard to deploy that company's electronic learning platform across 68 individual campuses.
- Semantic Search: Could the Web Think?
Semantics is a sub-field of linguistics that focuses on meaning making in language. Therefore, the Semantic Web we're still reaching for will be based on a set of definitions, languages, and standards that can base a search on the detection of meaning and not just on a simple character string. The Semantic Web will at least be smarter than the current Web.
