Petaflop

Petaflop... what the heck is a petaflop? I asked myself that question this morning when as I was searching through various news articles (Yahoo Tech, Wired News) about technology looking for today's blog. There in Wired News was an article titled "Supercomputers Break Petaflop Barrier, Transforming Science". Now for a computer geek like myself I had to admit I was embarrassed I had no idea what a Petaflop is.

The explanation is rather lengthy so I am cheating; click on this link- Petaflop. Now that you have read that you may start wondering beyond the use in simulations what this computing capacity may have. You could turn it loose and with the right programming it would be able to predict the stock market... maybe. If it developed its own artificial intelligence it could take over the world (not likely). It could enable us to do what science fiction writers have been talking about for decades... enable us to have space craft that cross dimensional barriers and jump through space. I think you can all guess which one I am hoping for.

In every... or almost every book/story that tries to explain the jump process it includes one fundamental thing. A very mathematical heavy system for navigating from point A to point B without which the vessel becomes lost or is destroyed upon transition. Does this mean we may see this technology become real in our life time? I certainly hope so.

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