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Chinese supercomputer is the world's fastest — and without using US chips.

anubi writes:

China now has a greater share of the world's fastest supercomputers than the US.

We just got through discussing about how Intel's Hardware Rootkit is used for providing remote access services to interested third parties that may want to have some say as to what you use your machine for...

From the article:

The Sunway TaihuLight takes the top spot from previous record-holder Tianhe-2 (also located in China), and more than triples the latter's speed. The new number one is capable of performing some 93 quadrillion calculations per second (otherwise known as petaflops) and is roughly five times more powerful than the speediest US system, which is now ranked third worldwide.

[...] The previous fastest supercomputer, China's Tianhe-2, was built using US-made Intel processors. There were plans to upgrade the Tianhe-2's performance last year, but in April 2015 the US government placed an export ban on all high-performance computing chips to China.

So, while we were backloading our stuff with backdoors, the Chinese are leapfrogging us, and leave the United States government shaking the hand of executives who outsourced our technical jobs. Hope it was a good hand shake.

I am already finding a lot of datasheets for very interesting chips I use for my Arduino stuff... things like very high precision ADC's and DAC's - available in native Chinese. Most of the time an English translation ( Google translator quality ) is available. I am getting used to the idea that the new high tech is apt to require an understanding of Chinese to read it.

This is gonna be interesting to see how this plays out when China develops weaponry surpassing that controlled by the USA.

China's New Supercomputer Uses a 260-Core Chip

takyon writes:

HPCWire received a report about Sunway TaihuLight, the world's new #1 supercomputer system on the June 2016 TOP500 list, in advance, and has some details about its architecture. The system uses the native/homegrown SW26010 "manycore" processor instead of Intel's similar Xeon Phi chips. Each SW26010 has 260 cores divided into four groups, with 64 compute cores and a single "management core" in each group. The chip reaches about 3 teraflops of peak floating point performance, and can access 8 GB [CORRECTION: 32 GB] of DDR3 memory. There are 40,960 of these chips, for a total of 10,649,600 cores (10,485,760 compute cores). The system's efficiency is around 6.05 gigaflops per Watt, over three times more efficient than the Tianhe-2 supercomputer. Although the TOP500 and Green500 lists are due to merge, the Green500 list has not been published yet. As for what the system will be used for:

Gaaark writes:

The James Webb Space Telescope (what could maybe be called a 'better Hubble telescope') is due to be launched in 2018.

Its primary mirror spans 6.5 metres, compared to Hubble's 2.5, giving it seven times more light-gathering power. It will also gather from the infrared spectrum instead of gathering visible light: this will allow it to 'see' past clouds of dust, to gather more information about the beginning of the universe.

It will NOT be fixable like the Hubble, though. It is going to be sitting out at L2 (Lagrange point 2 of the Earth-Sun system) which is 1,500,000 kilometers (930,000 mi) from Earth, directly opposite to the Sun. At this point, with the Earth, moon and sun behind it, the spacecraft can get a clear view of deep space.

Where exactly is L2 for the Earth-Sun system? You can work it out for yourself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point#L2)

or look at pretty pictures
1. http://webbtelescope.org/webb_telescope/technology_at_the_extremes/graphics/fig-4-webb-orbit-big.jpg
2. http://www.stsci.edu/jwst/overview/design/orbit1.jpg

Why do you have to state 'L2 for the Earth-Sun system'?

[Continues...]

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Internet users complain Slack, Reddit and other sites unavailable – AWS outage also reported

Hosting provider CloudFlare is experiencing outages across Europe this afternoon, with some Internet users reporting problems accessing sites from its customers such as Reddit, Slack, and Medium.

"CloudFlare is observing network performance issues in some European locations. We are actively working to reduce or eliminate any impact to Internet users in this region," read the company's status page today, stating problems started at 13:26 BST. The problem seems to have stemmed from issues with Telia Carrier, a network infrastructure and services provider that runs underwater cables linking Internet services around the world.

"CloudFlare is observing network performance issues in LIMA. We are actively working to reduce or eliminate any impact to Internet users in this region," the company said.

Some users have taken to Twitter to vent their outage anger, claiming they are also having problems accessing sites like Medium, Intercom, and Slack.

TechWeekEurope has contacted CloudFlare for more information, and will update this article if we receive a response.

UPDATE

Amazon Web Services just its service status page, claiming some of its customers would have experienced connectivity issues in its EU West region.

“6:12 AM PDT We are investigating an issue with an external provider outside of our network, which may be impacting Internet connectivity between some customer networks and the EU-WEST-1 Region. Connectivity to instances and services within the Region is not impacted by the event,” AWS said.

Amazon has now updated customers on the situation, claiming the issue has now been solved.

“Between 5:10 AM and 6:01 AM PDT an external provider outside of our network experienced an issue which impacted Internet connectivity between some customer networks and the EU-WEST-1 Region. Connectivity to instances and services within the Region was not impacted by the event. The issue is resolved and the service is working normally.”

CloudFlare has also now updated its service status, claiming the issue has now been identified.

“We have identified an issue with an upstream transit provider and are currently working to mitigate the impact of this now,” the company said.At 14:43 BST, CloudFlare said: “A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results.”

Original Submission

"exec" writes:

https://www.rt.com/viral/347373-plastic-bottle-fuel-science/

Global plastic production now stands at more than 299 million metric tons per year, most of which is destined for the world's landfills and waterways. However, scientists are working on a method to convert all of that polyethylene waste into liquid fuel.

[...] The researchers behind the new study, who are based at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and the University of California, sought more efficient means to regenerate plastic. Current methods of converting plastic into liquid fuel involve subjecting the material to great heat or ultraviolet radiation – a method the researchers say suffers from "low energy efficiency and lack of product control."

The process they developed, known as cross alkane metathesis (CAM), appears to be "highly efficient" in breaking down the plastic "without any pretreatment," according to the researchers.

This process involves using two catalysts to create chemical reactions that basically split and separate the substances used to make plastic items such as carrier bags or bottles.

"After multiple cycles of CAM with light alkanes, PE [polyethylene] will be eventually converted to short hydrocarbons suitable for transportation oils," the study reads.

The research also showed that the catalysts are "compatible with various polyolefin additives," meaning a number common plastic objects, perhaps otherwise likely to remain under the soil for thousands of years, could be converted into energy or chemical feedstocks.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Beijing's Intellectual Property Office has ruled against Apple in a patent dispute brought by a Chinese handset maker.

The iPhone 6 and 6S models are similar to Shenzhen Baili's 100C phone, the authority ruled.

In theory, this could lead to iPhone sales being halted in Beijing but sales may be continued if Apple launches an appeal.

The iPhone currently remains on sale in Beijing and around China, reports the Tech in Asia website. Analyst Ben Wood, from CCS Insight, told the BBC he was confident that Apple would resolve the situation. "Large companies will always be reluctant to settle if they feel they don't have a case to answer, but the Chinese market is so strategic to Apple that if they have to settle, they will," he told the BBC. "This is a constant challenge for all large tech firms. Typically these sorts of legal spats are a game of brinkmanship."

This is likely to anger Chinese consumers who love their iPhones. Baili is not a well-known company - they're not particularly popular. China is Apple's second-largest market, but the patent ruling just adds to the company's problems: its iTunes Books and Movie apps were recently shut down by the authorities, and it just lost a lawsuit against a Chinese leather goods maker which stamps the name "IPHONE" on its luggage.

Earlier this month, senior US officials warned American companies felt increasingly unwelcome in China, while the European Business Council noted its members were encountering a "hostile environment" in the country.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket writes:

http://phys.org/news/2016-06-astronomers-glitch-millisecond-pulsar.html

European astronomers have uncovered evidence of a small glitch in the spin of a millisecond pulsar. According to a research paper published on June 13 on arXiv.org, the pulsar, designated PSR J0613-0200, exhibits sudden changes in spin frequency, known as timing glitches. It is so far the smallest glitch size recorded and the second detection of a glitch in a millisecond pulsar to date.

Millisecond pulsars have highly stable rotation, thus they are used as extremely precise clocks in timing experiments, and the most stable are used as probes of space-time in pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments. PSR J0613-0200 in particular, is used in gravitational wave searches with pulsar timing arrays.

Recently, a team of European researchers, led by James McKee of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, U.K., detected the glitch in PSR J0613-0200, using data from four different telescopes across Europe. For their study, the astronomers employed the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in the U.K., the Nançay Radio Telescope in France, the Effelsberg Radio Telescope in Germany, and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands.

According to the scientists, the small glitch was easy to detect with a data set covering a long baseline. They noted that during a detailed analysis of the available data, the effect of the glitch was easily removed without loss of timing precision and concluded that this anomaly does not affect the timing stability of this and other pulsars studied in PTA experiments.

"As the glitch is small and the red noise of the pulsar is not well-defined, it is therefore likely that potential unmodeled glitches outside the timing baseline for other PTA pulsars have no significant effect on timing array sensitivity," the researchers wrote.

The team is convinced that the observed anomaly in PSR J0613-0200 is, indeed, a glitch and rules out other possibilities, such as magnetospherically induced variations in rotation and pulse shape, or a gravitational wave burst with memory, caused by a merger of a supermassive black hole binary.

Original Submission

fork(2) writes:

Nature is carrying an article by Alexandra Witze about Florida State giving a half-century of Antarctic geologic history the boot. From the article, Iconic Antarctic geology lab gets the boot:

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) is looking for a new place to store its Antarctic marine-sediment cores, the world's biggest collection of environmental records from the Southern Ocean. The cores have lain on shelves at Florida State University in Tallahassee since 1963. But last year, the university told the NSF that it no longer wanted to host the collection. Ideas for where the Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility might move to are due by 3 August.

Original Submission

Runaway1956 writes:

Two Calgary bush planes are flying to the South Pole in a rare and risky mission to rescue a worker in medical distress from a remote research station.

The Twin Otter aircrafts, from Alberta-based airline Kenn Borek Air, were dispatched to the isolated Amundsen-Scott South Pole station because they are designed to endure severe cold and are equipped with skis, allowing them to land in snow, the U.S. National Science Foundation said in a statement.

Officials say the planes could arrive at the research station as early as Sunday, depending on weather conditions. Details of the worker’s medical condition and identity have been withheld to protect their privacy.

But the harsh Antarctic winter – which sees temperatures drop as low as -80 C [-112 F] as darkness blankets the continent – will add a layer of extreme difficulty to the emergency rescue, according to the NSF.

“As there is no tarmac runway at the South Pole, the aircraft must land in total darkness on compacted snow,” the NSF, which runs the research station, said in a press release.

The planes will attempt to reach the ailing worker and bring them “to a hospital that can provide a level of medical care that is unavailable at the station,” the NSF said.

Flying to the South Pole in the midst of winter is exceptionally rare. Flights to and from the research station usually aren’t chartered between February and October “due to the extreme cold and darkness,” the NSF said.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/total-darkness-calgary-planes-fly-to-south-pole-for-risky-rescue-mission-1.2952179

Original Submission

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

From Damien Zammit, we have this fun little tidbit:

Recent Intel x86 processors implement a secret, powerful control mechanism that runs on a separate chip that no one is allowed to audit or examine. When these are eventually compromised, they'll expose all affected systems to nearly un-killable, undetectable rootkit attacks. I've made it my mission to open up this system and make free, open replacements, before it's too late.

The Intel Management Engine (ME) is a subsystem composed of a special 32-bit ARC microprocessor that's physically located inside the chipset. It is an extra general purpose computer running a firmware blob that is sold as a management system for big enterprise deployments.

When you purchase your system with a mainboard and Intel x86 CPU, you are also buying this hardware add-on: an extra computer that controls the main CPU. This extra computer runs completely out-of-band with the main x86 CPU meaning that it can function totally independently even when your main CPU is in a low power state like S3 (suspend).

On some chipsets, the firmware running on the ME implements a system called Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT). This is entirely transparent to the operating system, which means that this extra computer can do its job regardless of which operating system is installed and running on the main CPU.

The purpose of AMT is to provide a way to manage computers remotely (this is similar to an older system called "Intelligent Platform Management Interface" or IPMI, but more powerful). To achieve this task, the ME is capable of accessing any memory region without the main x86 CPU knowing about the existence of these accesses. It also runs a TCP/IP server on your network interface and packets entering and leaving your machine on certain ports bypass any firewall running on your system.

Yeah, and I'm sure they pinky-swear never to allow the NSA access to any computer via it. I'll be using AMD from now on, slower or not, thanks.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

What is the value of good health to you?
How much would you pay to re-attach your index finger?

http://www.nature.com/news/promising-gene-therapies-pose-million-dollar-conundrum-1.20088

Original Submission

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

Straight from the NY Daily News, more insanity for you:

Twenty-two people were injured when a 16-year-old boy went on a stabbing rampage at a Pennsylvania high school early Wednesday, leaving five students in critical condition, authorities said.

Sophomore Alex Hribal allegedly brandished two large knives in the bloody attack as he darted between several classrooms and down a hallway at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville — a typically peaceful community about 18 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Twenty-one students and an adult security guard were wounded, officials said.

Witnesses said the boy, who was wearing a "blank expression" on his face, first tackled a freshman and stabbed him in the belly before getting up and running wildly down the hall, slashing other students.

Nearly every truck at my high school had a shotgun and a rifle in the gun rack. Every single boy and a lot of the girls had a knife in their pocket. Zero people ever went on a rampage with them. It's not the weapons.

Original Submission

Gaaark writes:

Sokushinbutsu

refers to a practice of Buddhist monks observing austerity to the point of death and mummification

It means, eating and drinking yourself to death in a way that would 'naturally' mummify your body so it would not rot.

It involves eating pine needles and bark, drinking tea made from the bark of the urushi tree (which contains the same chemical that makes poison ivy so unpleasant), and drinking water from a spring with near-fatal levels of arsenic.

Wikipedia and Damn Interesting have more information.

Original Submission

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

The folks over at Variety bring us possibly interesting news, depending on your feelings of the movie vs. the series:

Two years before “Independence Day” blasted the doors off the box office, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were already exploring alien life with “Stargate.”

The film went on to gross almost $200 million worldwide and spawned three live-action spinoff series, which ran for a cumulative 354 episodes.

“At the time that we made it, every single studio in Hollywood had told me that science fiction was dead,” Devlin recalls. “And Roland and I really love science fiction, so I think that’s partly why it worked and resonated. It wasn’t a cynical attempt to try and make something that was crowd-pleasing.”

Despite “Resurgence” being Emmerich’s first official sequel, “Stargate” was initially conceived as part of a trilogy, Devlin says, “and because of what happened with the rights and changes at the studio and all kinds of strange things, we never got to do parts two and three.”

Now the duo are in active development on a reboot movie being produced by MGM and Warner Bros.. The film is being penned by “Resurgence” writers James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright, and is intended to kickstart the franchise that Emmerich and Devlin always hoped to create.

“It’s not a story that can take place 20 years later. So the only way to really tell that trilogy is to go back from the beginning and start the story all over again,” Devlin says.

Personally, I was never that impressed with with the cinematic version. The series I dug though.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

CNET has a story giving advance notice on How to watch a major earthquake test shake a six-story building:

A six-story building has been constructed on an outdoor shake table at UCSD with support from federal and state government agencies as well as a number of building industry sponsors. The main sponsor is SWS Panel and Truss, builders of the engineered Mid-Rise Cold-Formed Steel Building Wall Systems used to create the test building.

The test will begin around noon PT and will involving shaking the heck out of the structure and also seeing how it holds up to fire. A drone flying inside the building will provide a video feed of what the shaking looks like from the interior. You can also watch the test via this live web video feed.

There's an old saying, "Scientists have frequently found that two months in the lab can save two hours in the library." In this case, though, I am happy to see that empirical testing is being performed to get actual data about what happens under controlled circumstances. Hopefully, the data gathered can lead to the development of cost-effective buildings that are better able to survive earthquakes. Oh, and if they are open to ideas, I'd suggest they consider playing this music over loudspeakers while conducting the test.

Original Submission

HughPickens.com writes:

Coal still helps keep our lights on, generating nearly 40 percent of U.S. power. But it generated more than 50 percent just over a decade ago, and the big question now is how rapidly its decline will continue. Almost every watt of new generating capacity is coming from natural gas, wind or solar; the coal industry now employs fewer workers than the solar industry, which barely existed in 2010. Is there a "war on coal"?

Sam Batkins writes the market cap of four of the largest coal companies was more than $35 billion in 2011 but after a flurry of regulation, there's been a decline in their market cap of 99 percent. According to Batkins EPA and the Department of Interior have combined to impose $312 billion in costs and more than 30 million paperwork burden hours. All of these burdens aren’t directed solely at the coal industry, but the Clean Power Plan, coal residuals rule, the MATS measure, and Cross-State Air Pollution Rule will impose nearly $20 billion in annual burdens on the industry.

Barry Ritholtz says that regulation is not the whole story and that cheap natural has been a huge factor. According to Ritholtz, coal-fired plants have been the workhorses of U.S. electrical generation for the better part of a century. "Many utilities are switching from coal to natural gas as an energy source. It isn't only greener, it's cheaper, partly because it costs less to move gas through a pipeline than it costs to transport coal by ship, rail or truck," says Ritholtz. "The reality is that coal is the victim of competition from cheaper natural gas, from green-energy sources like solar and wind, and too much debt taken on to pay for costly and ill-timed acquisitions."

Coal retirements have enabled Obama to pledge U.S. emissions cuts of up to 28 percent by 2025, which has, in turn, enabled him to strike a climate deal with China and pursue a global deal later this year in Paris. “We’ve found the secret sauce to making progress in unlikely places,” says Bruce Nilles. “And every time we beat the coal boys, people say: ‘Whoa. It can be done.’”

Original Submission