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Students Power Supercomputer with Bicycles
inkslinger77 writes "A team of ten MIT students powered a supercomputer for twenty minutes by pedaling bicycles. They duly claimed the world record for human-powered computing (HPC). They powered a SiCortex SC648 supercomputer with a Linux cluster of 648 CPUs and almost 1TB of main memory in a single cabinet. The system is low-powered and draws 1,200 watts without needing special power supplies or cooling..."
One MIT student is how many foot pounds per second?
So, the students don't run Linux... they bicycle it instead!
imagine how long the students of any other university would be able to power them!
In the future, which I imagine shall be very much like "Mad Max", this is what shall be required to run SP3 of Windows Vista....
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
Oh great, next they'll invent SkyNet.
If one of those guys goes by the nick 'Neo', I'm gonna get worried.
Not really that useful and interesting How about taking a look into "powered by kicking" technology, make it available to the average joe, millions of kWh of power will be saved across the globe on a daily basis from frustrated computer users
It used to be research.
Then little errands. Get the professor a coke, pick up his stuff.
Then acting as tech support.
Then doing all the prof's work for him.
And now... running the system by the sweat of your brow.
We must draw the line somewhere, folks. Free labor has its limits!
This cannot bode well for graduate students... well... maybe for the chunky among us... but let's hope this doesn't catch on. I can already see profs carried about on the shoulders to and from meetings...
Oh man, I had written the below ages ago, and now there's a relevant story on /. ! ;-D )
(yes I could claim prior art but I'm not SCO
!!! welcome to the ENIAC democompo!!!
We are happy to announce the opening of the first demoparty dedicated to the ENIAC.
If you wish to participate, please agree to observe the following party rules:
1) Bring your own ENIACs. We do not want to see viruses on our system.
2) If you plug your ENIAC to the wall power plug, the PC, Amiga and Atari ST demomakers will saw your head off. At your own risk.
3) To give electrical power to your machine, we provide a bicycle room with attached generators. Please let us know a week in advance of the size of your group, so that we can get enough bicycles for everyone.
4) You are responsible of finding your own spot in the party room. Our ENIAC is already taking half of the available space.
5) It is forbidden to step on the wires.
6) "Flame" demo effects are forbidden. When we tried to achieve one, the vacuum tubes caught fire and we had to call 911. They were not very happy about it.
7) It is forbidden to spray paint graffiti on our ENIAC.
8) Domestic animals are forbidden. We will not pay for any damage caused by the stench of burned fur coming out of relay boxes.
9) You are responsible looking after your ENIAC. Dishonest persons may want to steal it at night.
10) It is STRICTLY forbidden to sleep on top of the ENIAC units.
11) Bring your own spare vacuum tubes and resistors. If you forget them you can buy them at the party but we will set the price... don't say we didn't tell you...
12) Musical creations are forbidden. Our musician tried to compose something and provoked the death of five dogs while trying to complete "Woof Woof ZAPPP !!", played with his newly created Music Tracker "LiveWireDogeeh".
13) Graphical creations are forbidden. Our graphist found a horrible death after making a vacuum tube box explode in an attempt to automatically create a drawing of Pamela Anderson on the floor with the glass shards. The result was not so great anyways.
14) The Bicycle Room has an excellent drink vending machine [rubs hands].
15) The coders are not allowed to access the ENIAC switches while the demo is running.
16) Any vacuum tube that fries during the demo cannot be replaced.
17) The "Plasma", "Shadebobs" or "Lens" demo effects are forbidden. Our coder placed some pot in the relay box so that we were stoned by the smoke and saw all kind of weird stuff.
18) If somebody does not respect these rules, people may be pissed off and quit the ENIAC scene !
The competition prices are as follows:
1. A brand new ENIAC
2. A Z80 building kit for every member of the group.
3. A box of General Electric vacuum tubes.
Good luck !
The ENIAC Demo Competition
Ahem. Sorry...
Please allow me to offer the Geekaflop, which will be defined as the number of gigaflops per bag of Chitos, as determined by the weight loss of 10 MIT students pedaling flat-out for 10 minutes to keep the supercomputer powered up.
The new term would be abbreviated "HaM"(Hamster Megacycles), thereby incorporating the longstanding scientific truism "We stand on the shoulders of giants".
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Maybe this would be a good way to powersupply future OLPC:s?
There are 2 types of people in the world - those who understand decimal and those who don't.
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