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Net Speed Record Smashed

BrianWCarver writes "The BBC is reporting that scientists have set a new internet speed record by transferring 6.7 gigabytes of data (the equivalent of 4 hours of DVD-quality movies) across 10,978 kilometres (6,800 miles), from Sunnyvale in the US to Amsterdam in Holland, in less than one minute. Average speed: more than 923 megabits per second, or more than 3,500 times faster than a typical home broadband connection. The data was sent across the Internet2 network. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (Slac) Computer Services participated in the record-breaking event. Slac has an interest in such high-speed transfers as they have accumulated the largest known database in the world, which grows at one terabyte per day."

42 of 388 comments (clear)

  1. Wow.. Thats fast. by PaulGrimshaw · · Score: 4, Funny

    So how many LOC's/hour is that?! ;)

    1. Re:Wow.. Thats fast. by haedesch · · Score: 2, Funny

      and what is this "minute" they speak of?
      Why do we have to use these obscure units when we could have easily had LOC's/unit of Planck time or Animatrix DVD / fortnight ?

    2. Re:Wow.. Thats fast. by kfg · · Score: 4, Funny

      I believe that's a whole olympic sized swimming pool full.

      KFG

    3. Re:Wow.. Thats fast. by Edball · · Score: 3, Funny
      Why do we have to use these obscure units when

      Yea!! My car gets 40 Rods to the HoggsHead and that's the way I likes it!

      *grin*

    4. Re:Wow.. Thats fast. by kfg · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ah, well, I must say I'm with you on that, but at the last meeting of Weights and Measures the revisionists won out and the hogshead ( much to the delight of the hogs) has been officially superseded by the "drum." This really sucks because the minor difference between the two is already creating havoc.

      They're still arguing over how many gym bags there are in a drum though.

      KFG

  2. warez :) by revmoo · · Score: 2, Funny
    Warez monkey's everywhere rejoice!

    --
    I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
  3. First Post by benna · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I have anything to do with it my broadband will NOT be 3500 times slower.....I'm moving to amsterdam!

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
    1. Re:First Post by jutpm · · Score: 3, Funny

      I am moving to Amsterdam, but it has nothing to do with the bandwith there.

    2. Re:First Post by spacefrog · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, and I can just see it now... Another random American wanders into a "coffee shop" and asks for a "big pipe"...

      After a while, you won't really care how fast your connection is... Your time perception will slow down and you will just want to sit on the couch and eat cheatos...

    3. Re:First Post by yokem_55 · · Score: 2, Funny

      And if you are lucky, you will get a really big cheato and find yourself pondering the meaning of extravagent cheatos.

      --
      ...and IN SOVIET RUSSIA, beowulf clusters imagine 1, 2, 3 profit!!!! jokes made out of YOU!!!
  4. LOC ? by charmer · · Score: 2, Funny

    But how many Libraries of Congress (LOCs) is that ? How can anyone quote GB without equivalent LOCs ?

    charmer

  5. Welcome to the future. by Melchior_of_wg · · Score: 5, Funny

    You just got to love how all internet trafic of today is measured in movies. ;)

    1. Re:Welcome to the future. by ciroknight · · Score: 3, Funny

      yes you do. but the question is always in the back of my mind... what movies are we using to measure with? I'de use the matrix and any other pr0n that was high quality enough to actually dent the available bandwidth....
      dont you just hate those ones that are so short they have no real content.. or the ones that are spanned across a hundred files... man that just makes me mad....

      --
      "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
    2. Re:Welcome to the future. by BabyDave · · Score: 4, Funny

      For those of you who prever more conventional units, the conversion rate is roughly 6,000 hours of movie per Library of Congress.

      HTH

    3. Re:Welcome to the future. by dimator · · Score: 2, Funny

      Umm.... still lost. How many "lengths of a football field" is that?

      --
      python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
  6. What'd they send? by idiotnot · · Score: 4, Funny

    It doesn't mention in the article. I remember seeing a couple of times that some Debian stuff was sent for these types of experiements.

    But in the absence of real evidence, I prefer to make things up.

    They sent pr0n.

    1. Re:What'd they send? by foxtrot · · Score: 2, Funny

      It doesn't mention in the article. I remember seeing a couple of times that some Debian stuff was sent for these types of experiements.

      But in the absence of real evidence, I prefer to make things up.

      They sent pr0n.


      Obviously, it was SLACware.

  7. oops by new+death+barbie · · Score: 5, Funny
    the equivalent of 4 hours of DVD-quality movies


    ahh, it actually was 4 hours of DVD-quality movies...

    --

    It's supposed to be completely automatic, but actually you have to press this button.

    1. Re:oops by MMaestro · · Score: 3, Funny

      Doesn't this mean they violated the RIAA's laws of distributing videos over the internet without their permission?

  8. RIAA and MPAA Sues Internet2! by radpole · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tommorrows headline on slashdot?

    If they are using that much bandwidth they must be pirating something.

    1. Re:RIAA and MPAA Sues Internet2! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      If they are using that much bandwidth they must be pirating something.

      With the aid of special math developed by the RIAA, the MPAA, and the BSA, they will prove that their respective markets are losing 3,500 times more now than they were just last week!

  9. Data used to expand to fit your disk... by jakedata · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now spam expands to fill your pipe.

  10. Largest database in the world... by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 2, Funny
    A quote in regards to why Slac is interested in the speed of moving information:

    During its research, Slac has accumulated the largest known database in the world, which grows at one terabyte per day.

    Wow! I hope they never allow that information to be downloaded on the Internet. If they do, then Google will quickly become the largest database in the world ;-).

    --
    Very popular slashdot journal for adul
  11. Re:Internet2? by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hell, my car goes faster than that just sitting in the garage. I know, I timed it, from Apollo 11.

    KFG

  12. Pfft. That's nothing. by colonel · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've said that no transmission method of bandwidth will ever exceed, in my lifetime, the bandwidth of a station wagon full of backup tapes.

    "A simple calculation will make this point clear. An industry standard 8mm video tape (e.g. Exabyte) can hold 7 Gigabytes. a box 50x50x50 cm can hold about 1000 of these tapes, for a total apacity of 7000 Gigabytes. A box of tapes can be delivered anywhere in the US in 24 hours by Federal Express and other companies. The ffective bandwidth of this transmission is 56,000 gigabits/86400 sec or 648 Gbps, which is 1000 times better than the high-speed version of ATM (622 Mbps). If the destination if only an hour away by road, the bandwidth is increased to over 15Gbps."
    -- A. Tanenbaum, "Computer Networks, Third Edition"

  13. Sending movies to Amsterdam? by BuhSnarf · · Score: 2, Funny

    Surely isn't it the other way around? ;)

  14. Re:Pfft. That's nothing. by planckscale · · Score: 5, Funny
    Sure, you can get it there, but once it's there you have to start the restore process...

    --
    Namaste
  15. In one minute.. by fadeaway · · Score: 2, Funny

    256,000 spam emails (or DMCA violation notices, if you prefer)
    160,000 banner ads
    85333 pages serves of Are You Hot or Not
    3,200 copies of Gator
    1,066 2 minute average quality porn clips
    10 pirated copies of Windows XP home edition

    I can't wait for Internet2!

  16. Re:What media were they writing to? by OpenSourced · · Score: 3, Funny
    likely /dev/null


    Rather unlikely. After all, you have to check that the transmission has ended with no errors. You could make a checksum, but I guess for such an experiment, they took the trouble to write to memory, probably in some kind of parallel setup.


    Alternatively, perhaps they just cut open the last bit of the optic fiber and watched the bits project onto the wall and make pretty patterns :o)

    --
    Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
  17. Re:SLAC by kfg · · Score: 2, Funny

    Really? Man, that's pretty cool. I'll have to go look up the experiment I performed one evening in the dining hall on the ballistic properties of Jell-O cubes.

    The lighting fixures were made out of 2x8's with florescent tubes between them and faced on the underside with pebbled plastic, but open on the top.

    I got some rather interesting data on particle scattering *and* created a nice "stained glass" effect, all at the same time.

    I thought I could gather some interesting data ( and a more interesting "stained glass effect) on the entropic properties of the Jell-O cubes as they melted, but they didn't, they just sorta "mummified."

    I stopped eating the "Jell-O" cubes after that.

    KFG

  18. Re:amsterdam by Flounder · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who's more likely to be stoned? Somebody in Amsterdam, or somebody in the bay area?

    --

    No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova

  19. Was Microsoft a sponsor? by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    6.7 gigs? Ah! Now we know where that Longhorn beta was leaked.

  20. Re:What media were they writing to? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I back my hard drives up to /dev/null nightly. It only takes about 2.5 seconds.

  21. MPAA Threatens Internet2 Lawsuit by ausoleil · · Score: 4, Funny

    In a joint press conference, Hilary Rosen and Jack Valenti have announced that the MPAA and the RIAA will sue the designers and contructors of Internet2 for creating a network so fast that it will certainly create havoc in the movie and music industries.

    "You can copy all of the Godfather movies in milliseconds!" Valenti shouted, slamming his fist upon the podium. "We're going to take THIS to the mattresses! To the MATTRESSES!"

    Rosen added, somewhat more sedately, that the a user could log into an Internet2 account and download the "greatest hits library of Hansen" in less than five minutes. Rosen refused to comment when a reporter asked her how Internet2 was any different, that similar acts of piracy could be accomplished today using only a dialup modem.

  22. Re:speed by Provocateur · · Score: 2, Funny

    you just gave me an idea for a Q3 skin...

    Now all I'll need is the bandwidth...

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
  23. Big! by shadowbearer · · Score: 2, Funny


    Duuuuuuude! Now that's a BIG PIPE!!

    You've just gotta love those guys in Amsterdam...

    SB

    --
    It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
  24. Rods to the Hogshead by drblunt · · Score: 3, Funny
    Historically speaking, in England, the hogshead was anywhere between 52 gallons (beer gallons) and 64 gallons (wine gallons.) In the US, a hogshead was anywhere from 100 gallons to 140 gallons.
    However, now it seems that the hogshead has now been standardized to 62.99 (63) gallons. (and thank God, I was tired of doing all the conversions at the grocery store. "Lets see...1 English hogshead...is....uh....damnit.") A rod is 16.5 feet.
    I don't even know if battleships have fuel economy which is THAT bad.

    However, Simpsons quote appreciated. Just something to chew on.

    Doc

    --
    We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
  25. Re:Pfft. That's nothing. by meringuoid · · Score: 2, Funny
    I've said that no transmission method of bandwidth will ever exceed, in my lifetime, the bandwidth of a station wagon full of backup tapes.

    I'll see your station wagon full of backup tapes, and raise you an Antonov cargo plane full of DVDs.

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  26. Re:What media were they writing to? by MarcQuadra · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you restore from /dev/zero or /dev/random? Zero is faster, but I heard random is more secure.

    --
    "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
  27. I know what it REALLY means... by WndrBr3d · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Slac has an interest in such high-speed transfers as they have accumulated the largest known database in the world, which grows at one terabyte per day."

    Read: GET ACCESS TO OVER 53,000,000,000,000 EMAIL ADDRESSES! ONLY $99 A MONTH!

  28. Re:What media were they writing to? by Darby · · Score: 4, Funny

    Rather unlikely. After all, you have to check that the transmission has ended with no errors.

    You know, it's smart alecky people like you who at least double the time to market for all the new technology.

    Check for errors.. Bah!

    You're probably the type who'd want to test the code before it goes into production.

    Sheesh, what next? Put dummies in cars and smash them into walls?!?

  29. Re:Pointless DVD comparisons are tiring... by fireklar · · Score: 1, Funny

    That's why we have LOCs/hour.