Students Power Supercomputer with Bicycles 148
inkslinger77 writes "A team of ten MIT students powered a supercomputer for twenty minutes by pedaling bicycles. They duly claimed the world record for human-powered computing (HPC). They powered a SiCortex SC648 supercomputer with a Linux cluster of 648 CPUs and almost 1TB of main memory in a single cabinet. The system is low-powered and draws 1,200 watts without needing special power supplies or cooling..."
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That's probably not very far off from real observed values
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Actually, you're well wrong. Cycling, like anything else, is about power to weight ratio. Lance Armstrong [cruciblefitness.com], in training, could output 6.8 watts per kilogramme, which on his body weight of 74Kg is just over 500 watts. Some of the big fast guys (Tom Boonen [tomboonen.com], Magnus Backstedt [magnusbackstedt.com]) can sustain really startling outputs for long periods of time. I have a friend who peaks around 600 watts and can sustain better than 400 all day; but on his 102Kg that's only 6 watts per Kg. That's strictly amateur - he's fast for us, but he couldn't compete with the pros.
There's nothing at all hard about 200 watts. Any club cyclist who can do a ten mile time trial at evens is sustaining 4.8 watts/Kg for half an hour. I can do that, and I'm probably old enough to be your grandfather. I weigh 82Kg, so for me that's 381 watts. And I can certainly do 200 watts (13.5mph on the flat, for someone my weight) for eight hours continuous without difficulty.
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And your numbers are just as bad as the guy above you, only in the opposite direction.
6.0 w/kg, which you say your "amateur" friend can do, is enough to win many Grand Tour climbs. Lance was only ever confirmed at 6.3. Your average recreational cyclist is around 3, beginning racer around 4, local elite racer 5, pros around 6. See this chart [cyclingpeakssoftware.com].
13.5mph is about 100 watts, not 200.
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i have 4,1watts per kilo gramm body mass. tour de france dudes have about 5 w/kg.
so the 120w they are pedaling is (unless they wheight about 30kilos or so) really onle recreation
for those who wonder what i am doin here... yes i do studi informatik in germany
black forrest 4 the win!
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88.5074579 foot pounds per second (Score:2)
A general rule of thumb is that one barrel of oil is the energy equivalent of about one year of hard labor for a human.
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Each person can click once per day to increase a particular aspect of a person's city. The more clicks, the more increases.
There are two reasons to link spam:
1.) Get your city some growth. This increases the rank of your city.
2.) Link to somebody else's city linking to a particular aspect like industry, which if enough people click will screw the balance of their city, e.g. high industry increases crime. This lowers the rank of their city.
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Heh... (Score:5, Funny)
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I would've thought the tt tag would add returns by itself.. anyway. here goes again:
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Well, it should've been a superman ascii art thingy.
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But these are MIT students... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:But these are MIT students... (Score:4, Funny)
"Screw ethanol, we're green the hops way! Take that corn industry!"
Re:But these are MIT students... (Score:4, Funny)
"Screw ethanol, we're green the hops way! Take that corn industry!"
Well, your solution apparently still requires ethanol to be burned. Just that the powerplant is in human form.
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"Screw ethanol, we're green the hops way! Take that corn industry!"
Maybe you could have they wash tortias down with their beer.
Of course the real issue with the "corn industry" is it isn't necessary to make fuel ethanol from perfectly good food. Far more sensible would be to either use a a waste product or a plant which grows as a weed on non agricultural land.
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And, many American brands of beer actually use corn as some of the sugar for making beer.
So, you're not gonna get away from corn that readily.
Cheers
In the future.... (Score:1, Funny)
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Matrix? (Score:4, Funny)
If one of those guys goes by the nick 'Neo', I'm gonna get worried.
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Wasted Their Breath (Score:5, Insightful)
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Unplugging CRTs would not help at all because there aren't any CRTs.
How about kicking? (Score:3, Funny)
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Oh dear. (Score:5, Funny)
Then little errands. Get the professor a coke, pick up his stuff.
Then acting as tech support.
Then doing all the prof's work for him.
And now... running the system by the sweat of your brow.
We must draw the line somewhere, folks. Free labor has its limits!
This cannot bode well for graduate students... well... maybe for the chunky among us... but let's hope this doesn't catch on. I can already see profs carried about on the shoulders to and from meetings...
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typical laptop=100 watts? (Score:1)
What I find impressive... (Score:2)
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A quick google suggests that 400 W is about right for a rider in good condition for a short time.
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I was quite impressed.
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Manufacturing uses energy too (Score:1, Interesting)
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The first 3,000 years of civilization ?? When hardly anybody was literate and counting was like 1,2, many ?
Come off it, of all the nonsense comparisons this one really is far out. Is a year of ancient civilization now a performance benchmark ?
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Welcome to the ENIAC demo competition! (Score:3, Funny)
(yes I could claim prior art but I'm not SCO
!!! welcome to the ENIAC democompo!!!
We are happy to announce the opening of the first demoparty dedicated to the ENIAC.
If you wish to participate, please agree to observe the following party rules:
1) Bring your own ENIACs. We do not want to see viruses on our system.
2) If you plug your ENIAC to the wall power plug, the PC, Amiga and Atari ST demomakers will saw your head off. At your own risk.
3) To give electrical power to your machine, we provide a bicycle room with attached generators. Please let us know a week in advance of the size of your group, so that we can get enough bicycles for everyone.
4) You are responsible of finding your own spot in the party room. Our ENIAC is already taking half of the available space.
5) It is forbidden to step on the wires.
6) "Flame" demo effects are forbidden. When we tried to achieve one, the vacuum tubes caught fire and we had to call 911. They were not very happy about it.
7) It is forbidden to spray paint graffiti on our ENIAC.
8) Domestic animals are forbidden. We will not pay for any damage caused by the stench of burned fur coming out of relay boxes.
9) You are responsible looking after your ENIAC. Dishonest persons may want to steal it at night.
10) It is STRICTLY forbidden to sleep on top of the ENIAC units.
11) Bring your own spare vacuum tubes and resistors. If you forget them you can buy them at the party but we will set the price... don't say we didn't tell you...
12) Musical creations are forbidden. Our musician tried to compose something and provoked the death of five dogs while trying to complete "Woof Woof ZAPPP !!", played with his newly created Music Tracker "LiveWireDogeeh".
13) Graphical creations are forbidden. Our graphist found a horrible death after making a vacuum tube box explode in an attempt to automatically create a drawing of Pamela Anderson on the floor with the glass shards. The result was not so great anyways.
14) The Bicycle Room has an excellent drink vending machine [rubs hands].
15) The coders are not allowed to access the ENIAC switches while the demo is running.
16) Any vacuum tube that fries during the demo cannot be replaced.
17) The "Plasma", "Shadebobs" or "Lens" demo effects are forbidden. Our coder placed some pot in the relay box so that we were stoned by the smoke and saw all kind of weird stuff.
18) If somebody does not respect these rules, people may be pissed off and quit the ENIAC scene !
The competition prices are as follows:
1. A brand new ENIAC
2. A Z80 building kit for every member of the group.
3. A box of General Electric vacuum tubes.
Good luck !
or more usefully, (Score:2)
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As a Human Powered Vehicle enthusiast... (Score:1)
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I've done some research into it, and I figure you're probably better off buying one of the 12W foldable solar panels (or the rollable ones, but they're even more expensive, and give even worse W/area), and tying it down over your Panniers than to use some kind of generator system on a bike. On the upside, depending on the rest of system, next years ultra mobile parts based on Intel's Silverthorne ought to be pretty awesome for this kind of thing, and hopefully offer performance in the range of 500Mh
Sounds like a good way (Score:1)
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New record? (Score:5, Interesting)
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weren't the original adding machines hand cranked?
at least a starting point.
Most... Pathetic... Story... Ever (Score:5, Insightful)
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Now, that is funny! Thanks for the morning laugh, it is the best way to start off the day.
Next thing, maybe they will create a device to store some of the *mechanical work* to be used later to convert into electrical energy.
InnerWeb
Just wait.... (Score:2)
A laptop CPU needs 100Watts? (Score:2, Informative)
a typical notebook computer CPU needing 100 watts, according to SiCortex CEO John Mucci
My laptop draws about 20Watts max when running on battery power, even with the CPU running full-throttle. Much of those watts is for the backlight and drive. A 'typical laptop CPU', an Intel Pentium Mobile, uses maximal 24W, according to the datasheet [intel.com] provided by Intel. Saying a laptop would typically use 100W is a bit overstated.
Am I the only one that thinks (Score:2)
So... how many instructions "per cycle" is that? (Score:4, Funny)
Amazing! (Score:2)
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10 MIT students are nothing special (Score:2)
Indeed, what's so special about a power-supply consisting of 10 MIT students? Nothing really...
That's the Way To Do It (Score:2)
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During actual processor load and WiFi, usage of the chipset's 3D capabilities and high disp
pedal power overview (Score:2, Interesting)
Proposed New Measurement (Score:4, Funny)
Please allow me to offer the Geekaflop, which will be defined as the number of gigaflops per bag of Chitos, as determined by the weight loss of 10 MIT students pedaling flat-out for 10 minutes to keep the supercomputer powered up.
The new term would be abbreviated "HaM"(Hamster Megacycles), thereby incorporating the longstanding scientific truism "We stand on the shoulders of giants".
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Next week... (Score:1)
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http://www.otherpower.com/hamster.html [otherpower.com]
Aha! My Ravings Vindicated! (Score:2)
This story seems to show that their rigour was limp, and their points pointless.
Hooray for a legitimate basis fo
Next on QVC... (Score:2, Funny)
Yours for only $299 in 3 easy monthly payments.
SiCortex (Score:1)
As an OLPC? (Score:2, Funny)
If human powered computing = hpc.. (Score:2)
Conversion efficiency needs improvement (Score:2, Interesting)
I once took part in a nutrition study that required each participant to ride a stationary bicycle for 20 min or so. I asked the lead researcher how much power a typical college student could produce. He said a healthy college student could produce about 180W for the duration of a test session.
The test itself was uncomfortable. There was no breeze to keep you cool (and, since the human body is only about 25% efficient, that meant you were dissipating > 500 W as heat), and you had to wear a mouthpiece
OTOH, The students... (Score:2)
The students' special power supply and cooling, OTOH, came from beer! (Free, of course!)
But can it run Vista ? (Score:2)
Bicycle Power Calculator (Score:2, Interesting)
Effeciency? Bah! (Score:3, Insightful)
Dan East
Google may be biggest computer power consumer (Score:2)
storing power from gyms (Score:2)
wow (Score:2)
How many MIT students does it take... (Score:2)
Only one way to find out....
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