Handheld Supercomputers in 10-15 Years?

An anonymous reader writes "Supercomputers small enough to fit into the palm of your hand are only 10 or 15 years away, according to Professor Michael Zaiser, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering and Electronics. Zaiser has been researching how tiny nanowires — 1000 times thinner than a human hair — behave when manipulated. Apparently such minuscule wires behave differently under pressure, so it has up until now been impossible to arrange them in tiny microprocessors in a production environment. Zaiser says he's figured out how to make them behave uniformly. These "tamed" nanowires could go inside microprocessors that could, in turn, go inside PCs, laptops, mobile phones or even supercomputers. And the smaller the wires, the smaller the chip can be. "If things continue to go the way they have been in the past few decades, then it's 10 years... The human brain is very good at working on microprocessor problems, so I think we are close — 10 years, maybe 15," Zaiser said."

Comments

Yes, it will run linux

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Before anyone asks. Also you can imagine a beowulf cluster of these, as well as welcome the overlords.

Re:Yes, it will run linux

[JK_the_Slacker]

However, these STILL won't run Vista at full speed.

Re:Yes, it will run linux

[jollyreaper]

However, these STILL won't run Vista at full speed. You know what the best way to accelerate Vista is? 9.8 meters per second per second.

The Not Too Far Future

[eldavojohn]

10-15 years from always, I'll wake up to my alarm clock, powered by cold fusion. I'll stumble down stairs and get the keys to the hover car from the kitchen and grab my hand held supercomputer. On the way to work, I'll play Duke Nukem Forever as my car flies me along the correct path.

Nonsense

[93,000]

I predict that within 100 years computers will be twice as powerful, 10,000 times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them.

Re:Why supercomputers?

[FudRucker]

you can always tell a supercomputer by the big red "S" on its chest...

Re:Why supercomputers?

[IndustrialComplex]

Because it doesn't result in as much attention grabbing. If I told you in 15 years, you would have a faster general purpose computer, that wouldn't be newsworthy now would it?

Here are the measurements of my super computer

200,000 Libraries of Congress, or 17 great lakes.
15 Empire state buildings, stacked end to end in a giant circle.
The power consumption of 3 New York Cities.
All the potatoes in Idaho.
Seating for 1.5 747 jumbo jets!
And enough punchcards to circle the moon!

*POOF*

[thatskinnyguy]

What was that that just flew by me? Oh yeah! It was the vapor that is this article!

Re:Why supercomputers?

[Red Flayer]

200,000 Libraries of Congress, or 17 great lakes.

Thank you for provided that equivalent. I had no idea that 200,000 LoCs (a measurement of data equal to 20 terabytes) equals 17 GLs (a measurement of liquid volume equal to 2.3 x 10^16 L).

A little back-of-the-napkin calculation, and we can deduce that if those measurements are equal, then there are 110 bytes per Liter of water.

This makes sense -- if we freeze that Liter, each byte is approximately equivalent to a 1 cm x 3 cm x 3 cm chunk of ice, which I could easily fit into my mouth -- you might even say it's bite-sized.