专八阅读材料库之IBM夺回最快计算机桂冠_大学英语阅读

专八阅读材料库之IBM夺回最快计算机桂冠

　　ASCI紫计算机的计算速度相当于5万台最好的个人电脑同步运算。与普通的个人电脑相比，它的应用贮存能力比普通个人电脑要高出40万倍，它贮存的数据要比美国国会图书馆高出30倍之多。以100每秒万亿次浮点运算或每秒100兆计算的能力，ASCI紫计算机比它的前任ASCI白计算机要快8倍，它比目前世界上最快的计算机，即位于日本Yokohama的地球模拟器要快3倍。本年初，NEC建成这台巨无霸把IBM挤出了世界最快计算机的头把交椅。

　　THE POWER OF THE HUMAN BRAIN犹如人脑的能力

　　Hans Moravec， a professor at Carnegie Mellon Universitys Robotics Institute， says ASCI Purple represents an important milestone for the computing industry. Twenty years ago， he predicted that computers would require 100 terraflops of calculating power to simulate the activity of the human brain. Right on the schedule he predicted， that milestone has been reached.Carnegie Mellon

　　大学机器人研究所的教授Hans Moravec说，ASCI紫计算机的问世代表着计算机产业的一个重要里程碑。20年前，他预测计算机若能达到每秒100兆的计算能力，就能模拟人脑活动了。正如他的预测，这个里程碑已经达到了。

　　It seemed astronomically large back then， Moravec said. In fact， his predictions were first published in a science fiction magazine. m glad somebody remembered. Moravecs approximation is based on some observed facts - namely， the amount of computing power required to simulate the activity of the retina， which is about 1 billion calculations per second. For an approximation， he then calculated that the retina is about 1/100，000th the size of the entire brain. So he simply multiplied 1 billion times 100，000.