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#1 2006-02-09 22:12:39
- MathsIsFun
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Really fast "camera" to detect particles
It can analyze a billion proton collisions per second: http://www.news.wisc.edu/12105.html
"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..." - Leon M. Lederman
#2 2006-02-12 03:13:13
- irspow
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
That is pretty cool. Ah, technology. It would also be cool if they used the processor in the Regional Calorimeter Trigger for the next generation of gaming consoles.
#3 2006-02-12 04:55:47
- Ricky
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
I would imagine that processor is highly optimized for handling images and nothing else. But don't worry, processors will be getting faster very soon. Right now, manufactures are decreasing the size, power input, and heat release, while maintaining the performance, so the next step is to increase performance by increasing the size.
"In the real world, this would be a problem. But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist. So we'll go ahead and do that now..."
#4 2006-02-12 08:36:05
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
Imagine when they can "layer" the circuits on top of each other (possibly millions of layers) in a little cube. There could be Terabytes of memory inside (so ne external memory needed). Natural language, speech and vision recognition built in, too. Wow.
"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..." - Leon M. Lederman
#5 2006-02-13 02:14:27
- irspow
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
I always thought that I was born about a century too soon. Think about all of the things that our grandchildren might have!
I am not a computer guy at all and I know that some of you are a lot more into them. Aren't the limitations of silicon starting to peak over the horizon? I always believed that we would eventually be able to go to something with better transfer(?) rates like a fluid medium or something. Am I completely crazy thinking like that?
#6 2006-02-13 17:11:09
- Tigeree
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
a century to soon ?
People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.
~ Anton Chekhov
Cheer up, emo kid.
#7 2006-02-13 17:41:01
- ryos
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
Quantum computing might maybe have working prototypes in 20-30 years. Maybe.
Optical computing might also have potential as a silicon replacement, if they can succeed in trapping light on a small scale (yes, they've succeeded in trapping and storing a laser pulse for a time).
El que pega primero pega dos veces.
#8 2006-02-13 17:56:48
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
Or maybe a combination of electronic and optical. Each one doing what it is best at.
With optical you can apply massive transformations of data, affecting many frequencies at once. It is parallel computing on steroids! It is going to be very interesting to see what develops in this field.
Moore's Law still has life left in it!
"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..." - Leon M. Lederman
#9 2006-02-14 07:43:41
- irspow
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
Yes Tigeree, a century too soon. I believe that the technology one hundred years from now will allow humans to live a life of mental and spiritual pursuit rather than how we now spend the vast majority of our lives working for the Rothschilds of the world so that we can have room and board. I personally believe that we are still very primitive in the way that our societies are structured to operate. Right now, we are really not much more than colony ants. It is a very mundane existence. Ah, it is what it is.
Anyway, I just think that that far in the future, given the accelerating curve of advances in technology, that by then we will have enough "hardware" to take care of most of the trivial aspects of existence. Thereby leaving us free to pursue more worthy tasks. Pipe-dream I guess.
The Greeks had it right, by using a slave workforce, but that is no longer acceptable. I doubt if many will feel bad for machines though. (You will of course have some left-wing kooks who will try to save the poor machines.)
#10 2006-02-14 08:19:49
- Ricky
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
You might want to rethink that irspow. Right now we are over populating the earth, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, over hunting, over farming, using up much of our natural resources (and not just oil). Energy is going to be a huge problem in the next 30 years. If the standard of living in countries such as China increase as it has been, the demand (and thus, price) of manufactured goods are going to skyrocket. And so on...
But then again, if we can develop new technologies, then none of these problems will exist. We'll just have to wait to see.
"In the real world, this would be a problem. But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist. So we'll go ahead and do that now..."
#11 2006-02-15 14:58:57
- ryos
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
El que pega primero pega dos veces.
#12 2006-02-16 08:17:43
- irspow
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Re: Really fast "camera" to detect particles
I'm still waiting for a bacteria based or liquid solution medium before I buy my next computer. Just kidding. Very interesting ryos.