The plural of anecdote is not data (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} q_through_t) wrote,@ 2005-11-30 09:14:00 |
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computer research at UCD
Groves of Academe
UCSD Scientist Computing a Theory of Theories
This graphic shows the results of a circular “computational automaton” computer model after 100 cycles.
Image Credit: James Crutchfield, University of California, Davis
A University of California, Davis researcher received one of the most powerful computers of its type as a gift from Sun Microsystems Inc., and he's using it to construct simulations called cellular automata and investigate how theories are developed.
The computer that Sun donated to professor James Crutchfield is known as Colony. It has 14 motherboards that have 64 chips each, and each chip contains 64 32-bit processors, for a total of 57,344 processors. But what makes Colony special is the speed of the connections between its processors - it can run simulations thousands of times faster than conventional machines.
A simple cellular automaton would be a lattice of cells, each of which can be in a set number of states, such as black or white, one or zero. Colony can run very large lattices and also run models in three or four dimensions, making for more powerful and realistic models, says Crutchfield. He has developed a new theory of how cellular automata can spontaneously organize into miniature universes with their own unique structures. The ultimate goal is to understand how structure can appear at different levels of the universe, how the levels are related and how scientists (and computers) can automatically construct theories from data.
from here: http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretop
n.b.: 'ucsd' actually means 'uc san diego', but crutchfield does work at davis. he's pretty awesome.
Groves of Academe
UCSD Scientist Computing a Theory of Theories
This graphic shows the results of a circular “computational automaton” computer model after 100 cycles.
Image Credit: James Crutchfield, University of California, Davis
A University of California, Davis researcher received one of the most powerful computers of its type as a gift from Sun Microsystems Inc., and he's using it to construct simulations called cellular automata and investigate how theories are developed.
The computer that Sun donated to professor James Crutchfield is known as Colony. It has 14 motherboards that have 64 chips each, and each chip contains 64 32-bit processors, for a total of 57,344 processors. But what makes Colony special is the speed of the connections between its processors - it can run simulations thousands of times faster than conventional machines.
A simple cellular automaton would be a lattice of cells, each of which can be in a set number of states, such as black or white, one or zero. Colony can run very large lattices and also run models in three or four dimensions, making for more powerful and realistic models, says Crutchfield. He has developed a new theory of how cellular automata can spontaneously organize into miniature universes with their own unique structures. The ultimate goal is to understand how structure can appear at different levels of the universe, how the levels are related and how scientists (and computers) can automatically construct theories from data.
from here: http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretop
n.b.: 'ucsd' actually means 'uc san diego', but crutchfield does work at davis. he's pretty awesome.
