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IBM wants to run the entire internet on one computer.

ravenvii

ravenvii

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 17, 2004
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Melenkurion Skyweir
DailyTech said:
IBM launched an Epic project with an almost unfathomable goal -- to develop a single supercomputer capable of running the entire internet as a web application. The project, codenamed Kittyhawk (detailed in a white paper by IBM) created quite the stir in internet technology community.

While the software details descend quickly into the realm of the cerebral, one number that jumps off the page is the estimate for the number of cores and memory for the finished proposed system -- 67.1 million cores with 32PB of memory.

The system is based on IBM's Blue Gene/P architecture, which takes millions of cores and arranges them in a hierarchal architecture. At the lowest level four 850 MHz Power PC cores run on a single chip, with built in memory controllers and interconnects. The next level up is the card, which contains 32 of these quad core chips known as "nodes." Up a level, 16 cards compose a midplane. A server rack has two midplanes, yielding a total of 1024 nodes, or 4096 processors. Each server rack has 2TB of memory to play with. A maximum of 16,384 racks can be networked to yield the finally staggering metrics. As each rack has an I/O bandwidth of 640Gb/s, a "full" 67.1m core system would sport 10.4Pb/s of bandwidth.
Click to expand...

http://www.dailytech.com/IBM+Proposes+One+Computer+to+Run+Entire+Internet/article10612.htm
 
Neat idea. But it won't fly. The key to the Internet is redundancy. Putting everything in one place/system would not be a good concept.

While it sounds impressive, imagine it being 50 years ago (1957) and describing what we have today. I hope that I am lucky enough to be alive 50 years from now to see what computers have evolved into. :)
 
maybe they should just start small, and run all the non-porn websites on one computer. That'd run on just an XServe, I reckon.

But seriously, a computer that big would need it's own dedicated nuclear power station to supply it with enough power to run. Who's going to pay for the power?

It just makes it a lot easier having a delocalised internet.
 
I would have thought IBM would have learnt from the failed computer utilities of the late 1960's and early 1970's. I doubt this will catch on this time either.
 
folding at home anyone. That would scream to the top.

Not really sure that it would be good for the internet beucase if you look at recent news where a major pipeline was cut by accident what happens if that was the whole internet.
 
^^ Great quote! :D

Distribution of assets is key to the Internet.

Plus it is expanding too quickly for one organization to try and control, let alone serve it.
 
I don't think they want to *run* the internet on one computer, just have the ability to state that they have a Super Computer that *can* run the internet on one computer.


This is PR for their next or current (I don't keep up) Super Computer. They are marketing how cool their SC's are by saying they want to run the internet on one computer (Super Computer). Its just marketing people, move along.
 
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