Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 14:51:17 -0400
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: More mil robots
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Ern wrote:
> Ok, this one is better.
>
> One of the few interesting folks here is fairly young guy who built the motorcycle entry fot the darpa desert challege.
>
> The NIST presenter was saying that computers need to get an order of magnitude faster for the decision software to work on real vehicles.
>
> So the ai cycle guy says, how about running them through paralell processors (which he doeds)
>
> That's special purpose stuff, we'd rather just wait for the harware.
>
> But what about the paralell work already done in video cards?
>
> Oh, that's gaming technology. We don't have their budget.
>
> Ern
> Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless

Uhh ... that's the point.  You can buy them off the shelf and all you
have to do is figure out how to program them.  At one point, one of the
world's top supercomputers was built out of a network of Sony
Playstation 2s:
<http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-1010621.html>
The gimmick is that they only use the "computer" part for communications
and use the video card for the real number crunching.

The article says that they bought 100 PS2s but only used 70 of them.  I
have a strong feeling I know what happened to the others.

--
Steve Smith                                    sgs at aginc dot net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."