How many Sandy-Bridges to run IBM's Watson?

[Ben90]

I would agree that the buzzer was his most advantageous feature. I can ping connections thousands of miles away while still being less than a 10th of the average humans reaction speed.

Watson is more a software achievement than a hardware one. It really isn't THAT powerful of a computer. Blue Waters will be roughly 100 Watsons stapled together..

 

[Rubycon]

Is anyone else curious what the CPU, memory, IOPS utilization was in real time during the game?

:awe:

 

[PreferLinux]

I would agree that the buzzer was his most advantageous feature. I can ping connections thousands of miles away while still being less than a 10th of the average humans reaction speed.

Watson is more a software achievement than a hardware one. It really isn't THAT powerful of a computer. Blue Waters will be roughly 100 Watsons stapled together..

It's not really a software achievement, as they could (and probably would) have done it years ago if they'd had the hardware to do it. But I agree, it is actually a software achievement, as they have far more powerful supercomputers than that, but no software like it.

 

[drizek]

Getting the right answer = software
Getting the right answer in 3 seconds = hardware

 

[Idontcare]

Is anyone else curious what the CPU, memory, IOPS utilization was in real time during the game?

:awe:

Probably a "race to idle" scenario. System sat idle 98% of the time.

 

[Idontcare]

It's not really a software achievement, as they could (and probably would) have done it years ago if they'd had the hardware to do it. But I agree, it is actually a software achievement, as they have far more powerful supercomputers than that, but no software like it.

It is not clear to me what specifically is the achievement here.

We have fast computers.

We have databases full of interesting facts. (google is your friend, wiki, etc)

And time to solution is a matter of marrying faster hardware to software which itself has lower overhead.

But what may be the achievement here is the interface used to get the queries into, and the data out of, the computer system itself.

We've had Dragon Naturally Speaking for a decade or more, but to actually get it functioning to a high enough proficiency as to be competitive with humans is really great. So maybe that is the achievement?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Btw, IDC, congrats on becoming an "Elite Elite Member".

 

[Idontcare]

:$ thanks for the kind words

It was a choice between that or becoming an "Elite Member Member"...and if you think about it I'd really rather not become the member of an elite member D: Which would have taken the whole Kuato thing to an amusing, but altogether just wrong, level.

 

[Martimus]

:$ thanks for the kind words

It was a choice between that or becoming an "Elite Member Member"...and if you think about it I'd really rather not become the member of an elite member D: Which would have taken the whole Kuato thing to an amusing, but altogether just wrong, level.

When did this happen? Congrats on the title.

I'm not sure what an Elite Elite Member means, but it sounds important. Willl the next step be "Elite Elite Elite Member", or will you just move to "Totally Awesome Member", which is what I would probably change my title to if I had the chance ;P

 

[kevykay]

When did this happen? Congrats on the title.

I'm not sure what an Elite Elite Member means, but it sounds important. Willl the next step be "Elite Elite Elite Member", or will you just move to "Totally Awesome Member", which is what I would probably change my title to if I had the chance ;P

I'd settle for just having Member next to my name ;].

 

[Idontcare]

When did this happen? Congrats on the title.

I'm not sure what an Elite Elite Member means, but it sounds important. Willl the next step be "Elite Elite Elite Member", or will you just move to "Totally Awesome Member", which is what I would probably change my title to if I had the chance ;P

Presumably it will be "Elite^2 Member" (or Elite^n where n>2), unless, of course, the value in being Elite itself is something smaller than unity, in which case being Elite^2 or any higher positioning would actually be sort of a demotion instead of a promotion.

I might be mistaken but I believe the title "Totally Awesome Member" is reserved for Ron Jeremy and I have zero aspiration to challenge him and his, uh, "stature", as hard as that may be to believe or envision D:

 

[Martimus]

Presumably it will be "Elite^2 Member" (or Elite^n where n>2), unless, of course, the value in being Elite itself is something smaller than unity, in which case being Elite^2 or any higher positioning would actually be sort of a demotion instead of a promotion.

I might be mistaken but I believe the title "Totally Awesome Member" is reserved for Ron Jeremy and I have zero aspiration to challenge him and his, uh, "stature", as hard as that may be to believe or envision D:

There can be more than one "Totally Awesome Member", as it isn't the "Most Totally Awesome Member", so you, me, and Ron Jeremy could all take that title. I don't feel inferior to Ron Jeremy in any way to be honest, so I am not willing to give up the title without a fight (not that I have the title, but I am not going to admit defeat ahead of time.)

Anyway, congrats on the more unique title. I thought they went away with the unique titles, since Micheal lost his when they migrated to the new forum. (He is now just an "Elite Member") Maybe he could ask for it back. I like the idea of having the title "Even more Elite Member", or "Most Elite Member", or even "Not quite as Elite as IDC, but still pretty cool." Out of those, the last one would probably be good enough for me. Hell, the most accurate title for me would probably be "Annoying guy that doesn't quite know when to shut up."