Computing in the Cold PDF Print E-mail
Techno File
Friday, 22 January 2010 00:00

I write this quietly freezing next to my computer.

This makes a change as usually my computer gives of sufficient heat to keep the room warm let alone myself but as temperatures plummet and the snow settles even this modicum of warmth has dissipated.

Mind you, the computer isn’t doing much at the moment so the chips are quite cool (33 degrees the sensor tells me) so maybe if I  start a taxing task for it so things will heat up.

Fabrice Bellard may have the answer, he is a computer scientist who recently calculated pi to 2.7 trillion places and all on a PC. This incredible calculation took 131 days and beats the last calculation performed at the University of Tsukuba in Japan by 100 million digits. The university used a T2K Open Supercomputer which only took 29 hours but then that computer costs 2,000 times more than the desktop PC used by Bellard.

However, 131 days will see us well into May and then it should be much warmer and having a PC belt out to much heat during warm weather is likely to be troublesome. So may be something a bit shorter.

I could start using the computer as part of the World Community Grid which has several advantages. First, it will use the graphic chips as well as the processor so that is more heat, Second, I can halt the computations half way through thus stop generating heat during warm weather and third it does important work that benefits mankind.

Well, that seems alright but then when I want to do any work the grid client will stop and the PC will cease to generate the heat. Think again!

I could fire up a PC game, I have a few recent games that really tax the computer and that should kick out a few degrees of heat but then I will have to continue playing games to keep warm and I do have other work to do.

No, there is nothing else for it, I will have to switch the heating on.

 
0 Votes

0 Comments

Add Comment

RSS Feed Panel

Add to MyYahoo!
Subscribe in NewsGator Online
Add to Newsburst
Add to Google
Add to My AOL
Add to Pluck
Subscribe in FeedLounge
Add to Windows Live
Add to NetVibes
Subscribe in Rojo
Subscribe in Bloglines
Add to MyMSN
Add to Plusmo for your cellphone
Add to PageFlakes
Add to Technorati
Add to BlinkBits

Blog Articles

Computing in the Cold

I write this quietly freezing next to my computer. This makes a change as usually...

Welcome to 2010

Symantec, the firm behind Norton Anti-virus, have decided to herald in the New...

Broadband at Last!

Well, for years now I have used the O2 broadband service and I must say they...

Anti-virus Testing

“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” Which...

Robotic Dogs

As is my habit I get up early every morning. This is in part as I always have...

Prevention is Better than Cure

As I am writing this I am cleaning two PCs that have suffered virus attacks...

A Message from our Sponsors

Oh calamity (or should that be “Calam I.T”?) Such sad news, Microsoft has...

Windows 7

Well, I have finally had time to look at Windows 7. In fact I have had more...

N+1

When I.T. professionals start talking about resilience seriously inevitably...

Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!

Monty Python, amongst their myriad of sketches, did a take on the prevalence...

Netgear ReadyNAS Pro

I am a firm believer of "Black Box" computing for small business....

More Fraynor Nominees!

Readers of this column will know that every so often we hand out the "Fraynor...

Selling the Air-waves

Quite a few years ago I attended a conference about Digital Broadcasting and...

Making Light Work

One of the big problems with modern computing is the amount of copper cabling...

Fibre to the Home

The good news is that two thirds of all Irish Homes now have a broadband connection....

Thinking Small!

You've got to hand it to Google, when it comes to business they think small. No...

The National Broadband Scheme

Three are rolling out their HSDPA network which is being used by the Government...

Back to the Future

I had to change my mobile phone this week This doesn't happen to often as I...

The Elixir of Life

Not many people know this but the computer industry has its roots firmly embedded...

Life in Data Comms!

It's a funny old world, here we are in the throes of a (yet another) wet Irish...

module by Inspiration