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Students Power Supercomputer with Bicycles

Posted by samzenpus on from the those-crazy-college-kids dept.

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..."

18 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Question by Misanthrope · · Score: 4, Funny

    One MIT student is how many foot pounds per second?

    1. Re:Question by glomph · · Score: 5, Funny

      MIT measures its resident nerds using the International Smoot scale.

    2. Re:Question by proudfoot · · Score: 4, Funny

      Imagine a beowulf cluster of these! ...i hope they wear deodorant.

    3. Re:Question by Valdrax · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, assuming a lack of friction or air resistance and perfectly spherical MIT students...

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      If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
    4. Re:Question by Simon+Brooke · · Score: 5, Informative

      You must be superhuman. Best cyclists can endure 200 wats for few hours. I could make 200w for 5 minutes (tested on ergometer).

      Actually, you're well wrong. Cycling, like anything else, is about power to weight ratio. Lance Armstrong, in training, could output 6.8 watts per kilogramme, which on his body weight of 74Kg is just over 500 watts. Some of the big fast guys (Tom Boonen, Magnus Backstedt) can sustain really startling outputs for long periods of time. I have a friend who peaks around 600 watts and can sustain better than 400 all day; but on his 102Kg that's only 6 watts per Kg. That's strictly amateur - he's fast for us, but he couldn't compete with the pros.

      There's nothing at all hard about 200 watts. Any club cyclist who can do a ten mile time trial at evens is sustaining 4.8 watts/Kg for half an hour. I can do that, and I'm probably old enough to be your grandfather. I weigh 82Kg, so for me that's 381 watts. And I can certainly do 200 watts (13.5mph on the flat, for someone my weight) for eight hours continuous without difficulty.

      --
      I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
  2. Heh... by sapphire+wyvern · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, the students don't run Linux... they bicycle it instead!

    1. Re:Heh... by Barny · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, at least they are getting good at "power cycling the server" :P

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      ...
      /me sighs
  3. But these are MIT students... by CookieOfFortune · · Score: 4, Funny

    imagine how long the students of any other university would be able to power them!

    1. Re:But these are MIT students... by Adambomb · · Score: 3, Funny

      Free beer for every kilowatt-hour, Energy crisis solved.

      "Screw ethanol, we're green the hops way! Take that corn industry!"

      --
      Ice Cream has no bones.
    2. Re:But these are MIT students... by irtza · · Score: 3, Funny

      Free beer for every kilowatt-hour, Energy crisis solved.

      "Screw ethanol, we're green the hops way! Take that corn industry!"
      Well, your solution apparently still requires ethanol to be burned. Just that the powerplant is in human form.
      --
      When all else fails, try.
  4. Matrix? by ThreeGigs · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh great, next they'll invent SkyNet.

    If one of those guys goes by the nick 'Neo', I'm gonna get worried.

  5. Wasted Their Breath by LaskoVortex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They should have just gone over to the nearest administrative offices and unplugged all of the CRTs running "screen savers". This would have freed power to run the computer even longer and wouldn't have been as tiring.

    --
    Just callin' it like I see it.
  6. How about kicking? by CrackPipePls · · Score: 3, Funny

    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

  7. Oh dear. by ChePibe · · Score: 4, Funny

    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...

  8. New record? by Titoxd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    OK, so they broke the record for human-powered computing. But what was the previous record? Was there even such a thing as a previous record? How is this new record actually measured? You know that more people will now try to break the MIT mark, and TFA is rather scant on details...

  9. Most... Pathetic... Story... Ever by ishmaelflood · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well fuck me dead, somebody has figured out how to convert mechanical work into electrical energy. Trust those whacky kids at MIT to pull it off.

  10. So... how many instructions "per cycle" is that? by sapphire+wyvern · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ahem. Sorry...

  11. Proposed New Measurement by hyades1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.