HP May Have Invented A New Kind Of Computer

[linnemeyerhere]

If Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard are spinning in their graves, they may be due for a break. Their namesake company is cooking up some awfully ambitious industrial-strength computing technology that, if and when it’s released, could replace a data center’s worth of equipment with a single refrigerator-size machine.

With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer - Businessweek

Updated with a brand new video:

 

[Brink]

It'll be interesting to see it when comes to market.

 

[andrew129260]

Wow, that looks incredible.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It doesn't matter how great it is if HP continues its practice of quickly abandoning support for earlier versions.

 

[michaelst]

light is faster than electricity? who'd a thunk it?

 

[jimbo45]

light is faster than electricity? who'd a thunk it?

Hi there

The actual electromagnetic waves travel at approx. 300,000 km /s. Light can in theory operate quicker because there's no "friction" and also it will take the shortest path whereas the electronic impulses (electricity) have to travel along physical wires - which once you start talking computers with literally millions of connections the length is not negligible.

Where possible these days high intensity laser is used where circumstances permit

cheers
jimbo

 

[Cr00zng]

The light travels at the speed of ~300,000 Km/s in vacuum; however, in the case of fiber connection, it "only" travels at the speed of ~200,000 Km/s. The reduced speed is due to "fiber is glass and not vacuum", even in air the light slowed down comparing to vacuum. Electric current on the other hand pretty much travels close to speed of light in wires. That's not to say that the wire is better than the fiber. The latter one has numerous advantages over the wires, bandwidth the first and foremost, but the travel speed is not one of them.

Within "The Machine", being built by HP, the distance between the CPU and the proposed memristor will be measured in centimeters, instead of kilometers. Even interconnecting the "The Machine"s within/across racks the distance is minimal. Having fiber replace copper in the new computer architecture will provide the bandwidth that would be hard to achieve with copper. I can hardly wait to have a new PC with faster storage than the CPU can handle...

 

[HerrKaLeun]

The light travels at the speed of ~300,000 Km/s in vacuum; however, in the case of fiber connection, it "only" travels at the speed of ~200,000 Km/s. The reduced speed is due to "fiber is glass and not vacuum", even in air the light slowed down comparing to vacuum. Electric current on the other hand pretty much travels close to speed of light in wires. That's not to say that the wire is better than the fiber. The latter one has numerous advantages over the wires, bandwidth the first and foremost, but the travel speed is not one of them.

Within "The Machine", being built by HP, the distance between the CPU and the proposed memristor will be measured in centimeters, instead of kilometers. Even interconnecting the "The Machine"s within/across racks the distance is minimal. Having fiber replace copper in the new computer architecture will provide the bandwidth that would be hard to achieve with copper. I can hardly wait to have a new PC with faster storage than the CPU can handle...

the speed of light or electromagnetic waves is unrelated to the computing speed. the reason that fiber cable is used is that at high frequencies (high bandwidth) the electromagnetic interference is huge and signals become noisy. Light doesn't have the problem.

If HP builds this machine and sells it, does that mean it will be sold for $100, but every month you need to buy a $90 ink cartridge that is proprietary?

 

[margrave]

Electricity does NOT travel through wire at the speed of light. The speed depends on a number of factors, but 60% is typical.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

New video just added and should be watched.....sounds like MS is out !

 

[Iforgot]

New video just added and should be watched.....sounds like MS is out !

Yeh, open source M$ will like that..

I thought intel were doing something with optical, instead of copper for onboard transmission between processor and ancillaries.

 

[Britton30]

Sounds promising, Skynet anyone?

Stuff like this could bring MS down like music CDs ended the 8-track and cassette tape industries. And DVDs to the VHS business.

BTW, I have 200 or so VHS tapes for sale, mostly Star Trek episodes I recorded from TV.