The Next Big Thing

[Lewis]

Why Google's next big thing could be a warp-speed supercomputer
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/tech/innovation/is-google-taking-computing-to-warp-speed/index.html

 

[Knotical]

What exactly do they mean by "warp speed?" In Sci-fi it refers to the ability to beyond the speed of light. Is that what they are alluding to here?

 

[Lewis]

What exactly do they mean by "warp speed?" In Sci-fi it refers to the ability to beyond the speed of light. Is that what they are alluding to here?

Warp drive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_drive

 

[Knotical]

Right, I get the concept of a warp drive, but how are they going to somehow put this into computing? I don't they could build anything along traditional technology lines that could spin fast enough and provide a sufficient cooling system to make this viable, and cost effective.

 

[Lewis]

One of the biggest challenges so far for the mighty quantum machine has been environmental interference. The machine can only operate at an incredibly low temperature -- just above absolute zero, or -273.15 degrees.

"This chip has to have exactly the right temperature, it has to be shielded," said Brownell. "So a big part of it is building that rarefied environment. A huge amount of research and billions of dollars are being poured into building it."

 

[Knotical]

Right, how are they going to make this viable, then turn around and make it efficient. Not everyone, especially corporations (who are really the only market for this), will have the funds to build a cooling system to maintain this kind of thing.

It might be cool, but I have a feeling this is just going to die away because it is just too cost prohibitive.

 

[Kathi]

Oh dear Lord what is our world coming to?

 

[jasonc]

Warp drive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_drive

the computers on star trek's uss enterprise d(galaxy class) sat in a subspace bubble that increased the speed of electrons moving.