23 replies to this topic 1 votes

[Comic Book Guy]

Forget “3.14…,” a Japanese supercomputer has calculated Pi to over 2.5 trillion decimals in what should become a new Guinness Book World Record.

The T2K Open Supercomputer, located at the University of Tsukuba’s Center for Computational Sciences, reaching 2,576,980,377,524 decimals in an approximately 73 hours and 36 minutes long calculation, according to an announcement made to the Japanese press on August 17th. The Center said it was in the process of applying for the record book.

The new number more than doubles the previous record of around 1.2 trillion digits set in 2002 by the Kanada Lab at the University of Tokyo. It is also more than 12 times the record set in 1999, again by the Kanada Lab.

The T2K, capable of doing 95 teraflops (essentially 95 trillion calculations per second), is said to be the 47th most powerful supercomputer in the world and 6th in Japan, according to a June 2009 report by Top500.org.

Whether a pattern has been found or if the number will become scientifically useful has yet to be announced.




Article

[Hum]

Completely pointless

[ilovetech]

it will be mere for record, it will not server any purpose (even scientific).

[O.G]

What would happen if they found that pi wasn't irrational? What would they do with their time then?

[+Majesticmerc]

O.G, on Aug 20 2009, 08:30, said:

What would happen if they found that pi wasn't irrational? What would they do with their time then?

There'd be scientists jumping out of buildings!

[pasty2k2]

O.G, on Aug 20 2009, 08:30, said:

What would happen if they found that pi wasn't irrational? What would they do with their time then?

I suppose that's why they did it, to try and push that 0.00001% chance even further away.

Pretty mental that the 47th best supercomputer does it that fast. Just borrow one of the top 4 or so for a day, I'm sure they won't mind

[kimsland]

Hum, on Aug 20 2009, 16:27, said:

Completely pointless

Yes I agree
But then I find most ALL of these non-computer related HUM stories completely pointless

I wonder do you members know anything about computers? Or just how to Copy Paste (non comp technical) news reports?
Maybe post some news on computer stuff, there's actually a few million stories on computer related news
Maybe give it a go

[MidnightDevil]

Why is it so hard to discover whats left of the value of PI ?

[DDStriker]

Takes a long time but i wonder why they stopped it 73 hours in? they should just keep running it for a few months outputting the results

[DOOOMKULTUS]

Hum, on Aug 20 2009, 06:27, said:

Completely pointless

Haven't you learned anything from the movie Pi

[Solid Knight]

So for 73 hours there wasn't anything more important to crunch?

[tiagosilva29]

**** yeah, Pi!

[+Majesticmerc]

MidnightDevil, on Aug 20 2009, 11:23, said:

Why is it so hard to discover whats left of the value of PI ?

Because it's an irrational number. That is, a number that has no end, it has infinity decimal numbers.

[hjf288]

kimsland, on Aug 20 2009, 08:44, said:

Yes I agree
But then I find most ALL of these non-computer related HUM stories completely pointless

I wonder do you members know anything about computers? Or just how to Copy Paste (non comp technical) news reports?
Maybe post some news on computer stuff, there's actually a few million stories on computer related news
Maybe give it a go

Bit rich of you to insult other members when you call yourself a tech yet try to connect to irc using ICQ client..

No need for it

[ScorpioRGc1]

DDStriker, on Aug 20 2009, 06:50, said:

Takes a long time but i wonder why they stopped it 73 hours in? they should just keep running it for a few months outputting the results

Aye. Or heck, I'm sure they could have done another week, at least. Why just stop at three days?