Off-Topic: The Machine

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 24 Jun 2014 13:06:56 +0200, Johannes Bauer wrote:

> On 24.06.2014 03:23, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> http://www.iflscience.com/technology/new-type-computer-capable-
>> calculating-640tbs-data-one-billionth-second-could
>> 
>> Relevance: The Machine uses *eighty times less power* for the same
>> amount of computing power as conventional architectures. If they could
>> shrink it down to a mobile phone, your phone might last 2-3 months on a
>> single charge.
> 
> The article is highly unscientific and unspecific. It does not elaborate
> on what it means to "calculate" a terabyte of data nor does it specify
> what it means to "handle" a petabyte of data. They're terms used by
> ignorants, written for ignorants.

Heh, yes, it's a puff-piece, based on HP's publicity, not an in-depth 
review. Considering that The Machine isn't publicly available yet, that's 
hardly surprising.


> So all in all I think it's safe to discard the article.

Taking it with a generous grain of salt is one thing, but outright 
rejecting it is a bit harsh. I understand that HP has actually 
demonstrated the Machine, so unless they faked the demo, the basic facts 
are probably more-or-less correct.


> Also, mobile phones don't waste most of their power doing "calculating"
> and "handling" terabytes of data, but the RF and display consumes the
> most of power. Therefore, even if you could scale the CPU down your
> phone would still not go 2-3 months on a single charge.

Fair point.

But given how much smart phones get used for playing games these days, I 
think the savings would still be considerable.



-- 
Steven