NSF Pursues Petaflop Computers Kids often race their bicycles, pedaling madly to move ever faster. Then they advance to sedans, but covet sports cars, still wanting to push that envelope of speed.
Computer scientists are no different.
Already researchers are looking far ahead, yearning for computers a thousand times faster. These pilot projects will be presented at a workshop this Sunday, Oct. 27, at the Frontiers '96 conference in Annapolis, Maryland. Right now, computer speeds are limited by memory storage and by how fast that memory can be transferred to the working parts of the computer. To wait to solve problems sequentially slows the computer down. The first petaflop computers are going to be difficult to use.