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Blue Gene/P Reaches Sixty-Trillionth of Pi Squared

Posted by timothy on from the just-warming-it-up dept.

Reader Dr.Who notes that an Australian research team using IBM's Blue Gene/P supercomputer has calculated the sixty-trillionth binary digit of Pi-squared, a task which took several months of processing. Snipping from the article, the Dr. writes: "'A value of Pi to 40 digits would be more than enough to compute the circumference of the Milky Way galaxy to an error less than the size of a proton.' The article goes on to cite use of computationally complex algorithms to detect errors in computer hardware. The article references a blog which has more background. Disclaimers: I attended graduate school at U.C. Berkeley. I am presently employed by a software company that sells an infrastructure product named PI."

5 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. How many digists of pi do you know? by TroyM · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/031208/how-many-digits-of-pi-do-you-know.gif

    1. Re:How many digists of pi do you know? by the_humeister · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know all of them. I just don't know which order they go in.

    2. Re:How many digists of pi do you know? by Abstrackt · · Score: 4, Informative

      "How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!" There you go, Pi to 14 digits in an easy to remember package. Count the letters in each word to get the right digits.

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  2. Not a disclaimer ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Disclaimers: I attended graduate school at U.C. Berkeley. I am presently employed by a software company that sells an infrastructure product named PI.""

    That's *not* a DISCLAIMER. That's a DISCLOSURE.

  3. Re:A time to crack wise... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm sorry to destroy your one hope.