Posts filed under 'Uncategorized'
Anton massive ASIC machine tackles the molecular
The unique requirements of protein simulation drive a new approach to supercomputers known as Anton. Named after microscope inventor Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the machine combines 512 ASIC parallel processors dedicated to the task of calculating 3D molecule interactions.
The machine was devised and sponsored, writes the NYTimes’ John Markoff, by D.E. Shaw, founder of D.E. Shaw & Co., an investment firm that specializes in computer-based trade modeling. The formal news of the new system, still in development, appeared in Communications of the ACM. [The latest issue of the ACM marks a very deliberate effort to revive the stalwart publication.]
Alternatives to Anton include IBM’s Gene/L supercomputer and the Folding@home [like Seti@home] project. Anton brings to light the hegemony of general-purpose supercomputing [read: massive off the shelf computing] that marked the end of the Cold War. Specialized and down-right weird computers were more prevalent before the latest run-up of Moore’s Law in the commercial sector. Back in the day there was a fairly wide variety of array processors, DSP accelerators, vector machines and so on. All outside the ken of CISCs and RISCs.
More extensive simulation may mean faster time to market for very important cancer trials. Or maybe not. But one hopes it means something good.
2 comments July 16, 2008
Greg Leake’s .NET StockTrader 2.0 tries out load balancing
.NET StockTrader 2.0 shows how Microsoft thinks many people will use WCF to build SOA applications. It also has a bit of the look and feel of some Java app frameworks for distributed caching! If that is so it is a bit of a trojan horse.
Add comment May 13, 2008
Google imaging
Google said it had found a means for recognizing images with some of the panache with which it finds words in text. The prototype for precision image search was described at the International World Wide Web Conference in Peking. Is the assertion hyperbole?
Image processing is not easy, unless you can narrow down the problem, the canvas. It’s my understanding that you can set up a rig so that, yes, you can figure if a bottle on a conveyor has its cap on right. But looking for a face in an airport or a dreidle in a bag of marbles – no dice. In other words, if you can control the context you can perceive the image. But John Markhoff’s write up on this topic in the New York Times suggests image analysis is a largely unsolved problem. The Google guys seem to say as much in their paper.
Markhoff does present an expert opinion that what Google implies is not doable. Markhoff is a favorite here.. he is the only person to comment to date on this blog!
Figuring Google’s research culture is not too easy. Every employee is supposed to do some R&D, in a way, if we read correctly the company’s mandate for employees to divert 20% of their time to brainstorming projects.
Another article by Markhoff dated May 1 discusses a new memory architecture from H-P, Interest has to be a little piqued given the weirdness of the race track memory IBM has been buzzing about of late. We hope to get to some write-up on that soon.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3833337.ece
Add comment May 3, 2008
It has to do with hacking pacemakers via radio
How much foresight must engineers have? At what point do threats become absurdly remote? The questions arise, as I look at an item that recently crossed my desk. It provides a view into a future in which application security will endlessly enter uncharted regions. It has to do with hacking pacemakers via radio.
Add comment March 27, 2008
.NET Framework goes multicore
In November, Microsoft added some parallel extensions to .NET via a CTP. Jack Vaughan recently spoke with individuals interested in what mutlicore means to application developers.
Much of the multicore software activity to date could be described as language-centric. While Microsoft addresses .NET language needs with the .NET Parallel Extensions, there are alternatives for other languages. C, C++ and Fortran developers’ needs to adjust to multicores may be handled by the OpenMP shared memory API, or, in the case of C++ developers, multicore needs may be met by Intel’s Threading Building Blocks Library. So far, it may be the case that Java developers find the bulk of their requirements are met with the threading support already part of the language.
Add comment January 11, 2008
Integrated tester added to semantic development workbench
TopQuadrant’s Integrated Testing Server allows semantic Web applications to be tested without having to create a separate testing platform.
Add comment January 8, 2008
.NET Blog View
In November, Microsoft trotted out a concept piece known as Oslo. Oslo is a bit vague on detail. It seems to comprise any updates to Windows Communication Foundation and BizTalkServer that the company manages to create between
Add comment December 2, 2007
Mashups: Danger when scripts collide
The surge in use of JavaScript and mashups puts greater stress on developers to achieve security within the common Web browser. Even new tools to improve Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) interface building can aggravate security problems if they are not handled correctly, according to Douglas Crockford, evangelical architect at Yahoo and crea
Add comment November 6, 2007
AJAX developers drive innovation – what about browser makers?
This story from TheAJAXExperience conference discusses the fact that browser innovation has stalled and that much of what AJAX developers do is fill in the blanks for browser vendors.
1 comment October 26, 2007
Innocous Star of Boston lead me on
By Jack Vaughan
A girl named Star hit the front pages of the Boston papers not long ago. Star Simpson, an MIT student, was at the airport, going through Security, when all hell broke lose. She was wearing a PC circuit board populated by blinking LEDs connected to a 9V battery. Not too imposing, but to the TSA folks, a suspect device. Push all the alarms. Get on the walkie talkies. Close the perimeter. This is the Post 9/11 world! Shut down the airport. Chaos necessarily ensued. What would the old time Boston comedian Jack Burns say? Probably something like: ‘Katy bah the doah?’
In this age where everything has changed, you may not be aware that MIT students have also changed. Few have sheathed calculators on their belts. Some like Star, have the look of the slacker, if an achieving one, in this case with vividly dyed hair. And SocketToMe embroidered on her sweatshirt back. Artsy. But techno artsy. As in Performance Art meets Radio Shack. Thus the Hello World breadboard and Nine-Volter.
We smell headlines. The Boston Herald tabloid went through this kind of fire drill earlier when it sold some extra papers ragging on the Social Disruption Duo that placed LED-screen devices near Boston hot spots [including the Mass Ave bridge that connects MIT with the Christian Science Center. To promote the Cartoon Network’s AquaTeen Hunger Force.
Nobody wants to be in the Security line in the first place, much less wait for a little old lady that cant get her shoes off or a blinking college kid that should know better. The story has legs.
I can give you an idea of the full-page headline the Herald ran along side a full-page picture of Star. The words have initial capitalization. big capitalization. M.I.T. standing not for ‘Moron in Transit,’ but instead, ‘More Idiotic Tricks.’ They trashed our little Star.
I have some kind of idea about electrical engineering. I think I would have seen the LED board for what it was: non-threatening. Pretty obvious.
On the other side of the river from the Herald we have an MIT student publication, The Tech That headline is a little different. “MIT Sophomore Arrested for Innocuous LED Device.”
What strikes me is this dichotomy in thinking and knowledge. Our culture really doesn’t expect our airport personnel to be able to use any level of common sense to analyze what they are looking at. As long as it is electrical, it is magical and dangerous. Of course, most people would agree with city councilor who said, ‘In this day and age, you can’t play around.’
A state trooper who must have paid attention somewhere in school used the same term that The Tech used: ‘innocuous.’ Meanwhile the Government Accountability Office told it sent investigators to test security along the Canadian border and was able to easily simulate the cross-border movement of radioactive materials and other contraband with no border patrol agents anywhere in sight. Don't blink. You will miss something. [Also on MoonTraveller Blog]
Add comment October 3, 2007
