Perhaps this helps us grasp the
computing power available to us now and what we have been waiting for.
My own needs are for one billion
converging equations in each cycle in order to properly simulate the exact curvature
around and internal to one neutron. It
would be great if it could be done simultaneously to provide real time imaging.
It has been a long wait but I suspect
we have gotten there.
IBM braces itself for 'deluge' of data from telescope which outputs an
'exabyte' of data a day - more traffic than the whole internet
Telescope is 10,000 times faster than any radio telescope today
Huge array of dishes connected by optical fibres
£1.3 billion machine will come to life in 2016
By ROB
WAUGH
Last updated at 8:37 AM on 6th December 2011
The £1.3 billion Square Kilometer Array is one of the most ambitious
science projects ever undertaken - and the biggest telescope every built.
It will consist of dishes spread over a square kilometer of land in
either South Africa or New Zealand - and will scan the sky 10,000 times faster
than any existing telescope.
Signals received by the SKA will be transferred to a central high
performance supercomputer by optical fibres. The rate at which the vast
quantities of data will be transferred will far exceed the data rates of current
internet traffic - but IBM is already designing machines to digest it.
The Square Kilometer Array will generate so much data that no
supercomputer on Earth could deal with it - every day, it will generate an
'exabyte' of data, more than the world's daily internet traffic
Astronomers and engineers from more than 70 institutes in 20 countries
are designing the SKA - it will be 50 times more sensitive, and will survey the
sky 10,000 times faster, than any other telescope
The Square Kilometer Array will create three-dimensional maps of
'cosmic magnets' to understand how they stabilise galaxies, influence the
formation of stars and planets, and regulate solar and stellar activity
The amount of data captured by the dishes is near-impossible to even
imagine - enough to fill 15 million of the largest-capacity iPods every day.
Currently, most astronomy projects are managed 'manually' - ie by
astronomers using comptuers, but 'picking' which data to home in on. The SKA
will generate so much data this will be impossible.
But IBM has already prototyped software that can 'digest' it -- and
says that the technology could allow companies to oversee telecommunications
systems and transport networks more effectively than they do today.
Concept imagery of the Square Kilometer Array - the dishes will be
connected by a network of fibre optic cables built to move more information
than the entire internet does today
The SKA will scan the sky 10,000 times faster than any other telescope
- and will help scientists unravel mysteries such as 'dark energy' by mapping
the cosmic distribution of hydrogen, and tracking 'young' galaxies
Working with Dr Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, a radio astronomer from Victoria University
in Wellington
'The Information Intensive Framework prototype tested several new concepts and is IBM’s first attempt to tackle the data intensive challenge faced by astronomy,' said Dougal Watt, Chief Technology Officer, IBM New Zealand, and Chair of NZ SKA Industry Consortium'.
'While developed with SKA in mind, the results are also applicable to
other organisations faced with a ‘data deluge’. These range from individual
manufacturing plants and telecommunications companies to whole transport
networks and healthcare systems.'
Radio telescopes detect radio-frequency signals from space. They can
reveal areas of space that may be obscured with cosmic dust. The SKA will the
biggest and fastest ever built
Dr Johnston-Hollitt said: 'Undertaking research on exa-scale datasets
will force radio astronomers into a new, as yet, unexplored habit of automated
processing, imaging and analysis.
'We will need new solutions to fully realize the vast scientific
potential.'
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