DARPA Wants a 19" Super-Efficient Supercomputer

coondoggie writes "If you can squish all the processing power of, say, an IBM Roadrunner supercomputer inside a 19-inch box and make it run on about 60 kilowatts of electricity, the government wants to talk to you. The extreme scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week issued a call for research that might develop a super-small, super-efficient super beast of a computer. Specifically, DARPA's desires for Ubiquitous High Performance Computing (UHPC) will require a new system-wide technology approach including hardware and software co-design to minimize energy dissipation per operation and maximize energy efficiency, with a 50GFLOPS per watt goal."

These aren't normal scientists...

[Karganeth]

...They're EXTREME scientists!

No problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Just stick a human brain in a bucket. It's small, quiet, cool and just feed it a Cheeto every once in a while to keep it running.

Re:Could at least editors have a look at TFA?

[eliphalet]

How tall does this rack have to be?

Re:extreme scientists

[Anonymous Coward]

Back *waaaaay* off, man. I'm an *extreme* scientist!

Re:extreme scientists

[causality]

Back *waaaaay* off, man. I'm an *extreme* scientist!

That sounds like a nice bumper sticker. For the rear bumper.

19" tower and space elevator in one

[davidwr]

Two! Two! Two projects in one!

Re:extreme scientists

[Quothz]

Back *waaaaay* off, man. I'm an *extreme* scientist!

Oh, yeah? Where's your badge [scq.ubc.ca]?

Re:oblig

[Kratisto]

Grendel wouldn't stand a chance!

Re:No problem

[Jeremy Erwin]

Well, since Darpa also wants the operating system to be self aware, that's a start.

Re:57KW air-cooled 19" Rack?

[Anonymous Coward]

If it's Cisco, they suck a lot more than that.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:No problem

[Kjella]

And since the human brain has a computational power of 100 petaflops at 20 watts, it'd well exceed DARPA's requirements.

Only before you subtract the power used to think about pr0n. Or you can use a female brain, it'll no nuclear on you only once a month.

Alternate way to get one

[gmuslera]

Just stay around girls called Sarah Connor. A supercomputer of around that size will appear eventually, and you will take as bonus a portable nuclear reactor, and a somewhat aggressive AI. Be sure to erase memory because it surely will contain a nasty trojan horse.

Re:Yeah sure

[TCM]

19 inch box?

They didn't say how high.

In other news, progress on a space elevator has been confirmed. Curiously, it's 19 inch wide.

BEOWULF!

[dandart]

But will it run Crysis? But in all seriousness, BEOWULF OF DSs!

Re:No problem

[dkleinsc]

What happens if we use an Ab Normal brain?

Hmmmm

[the eric conspiracy]

So now we know what the hardware requirements for Windows 10 are going to be.

Government job

[lagomorpha2]

Given this is the government would I still get funding if I developed a computer that was capable of 50 Gwatts per FLOP?