Monday, November 1, 2010

NCSA director: GPU is future of supercomputing

(CNET) Thom Dunning, who directs the NCSA and the Institute for Advanced Computing Applications and Technologies at the famed supercomputing facilities on the campus of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says high-performance computing will begin to move toward graphics processing units or GPUs... NCSA already has a small CPU-GPU hybrid system. "It's something we have been working on for a number of years. We have a CPU-GPU cluster for the NCSA academic community. Made up of Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs. A 50 teraflop machine," he said. (Note that Oak Ridge National Laboratories is also installing a hybrid system now.)...10/29

Granholm announces two new Centers of Energy Excellence projects: Clean energy manufacturing and solar power

(mlive.com) Two new clean energy projects were approved under the Centers of Energy Excellence (COEE) program by the Michigan Strategic Fund board yesterday...The board approved a COEE designation and $6 million in funding for Dow Corning to establish the Solar Valley Research Enterprise (SVRE) in the Midland area, in cooperation with Hemlock Semiconductor and in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory...10/30

Previous ORNL Stories

DOE

Statement by Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Unveiling of First-Ever Large-Scale Wind Turbine Manufactured in Michigan

(DOE Press Release) U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu issued the following statement on today's unveiling by Merrill Technologies Group and Northern Power Systems of the first-ever utility-scale wind turbine manufactured and assembled in Michigan...10/29

DOE making up for past sins against nature

(Knoxville News Sentinel) The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge office announced earlier this week that DOE and the Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation had signed a "natural resources damages settlement agreement."...10/29

State & Regional

Most TN counties show improvement in jobless numbers

(Tennessean) Unemployment rates dropped lower in 93 Tennessee counties in September compared with a year ago, but the gains in Davidson County were somewhat muted...10/29

Prescription deaths mount in Tennessee: 1,600 in 3 years

(Tennessean) Prescription drugs killed more than 1,600 Tennesseans over a three-year period, according to yet-to-be-released research conducted by the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy...11/1

National

Federal Reserve's, Bernanke's credibility on line with new move to boost economy

(Washington Post) The Federal Reserve is preparing to put its credibility on the line as it rarely has before by taking dramatic new action this week to try jolting the economy out of its slumber...11/1

Bomb plot shows gaps in screening of air cargo

(USA Today) The Transportation Security Administration boasts that every piece of cargo carried on domestic passenger flights is screened for bombs before being put in the belly of an airliner. However, when it comes to ensuring the security of cargo packages on foreign flights heading to the United States, the TSA makes no such proclamations...11/1

East Tennessee

Specialty school envisioned at L & N site downtown

(Knoxville News Sentinel) Plans are in the works to open a high school focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics at the historic L & N Station near World's Fair Park, school and education officials announced today...10/29

energy & science policy

MIT Study Offers New Perspectives on Nuclear Energy

(AIP) An interdisciplinary MIT study offers important new perspectives on many of the long-running issues surrounding the future utilization of nuclear energy in the United States. In several areas, the report provides the basis for a fundamental rethinking of long-held assumptions about reactor fuel, reactor design, and the disposition of spent nuclear fuel...10/29

Inside Energy Extra

10/29 A daily report on U.S. energy policy
[ORNL users only] ** New EPA regs said no threat to grid

US wind-power adds at 3-year low
La. urges FERC to approve LNG exports
BOEM awards $2.5M for bird studies
Senators press Clinton on pipeline

science & technology

Time Will End in Five Billion Years, Physicists Predict

(National Geographic) Our universe has existed for nearly 14 billion years, and as far as most people are concerned, the universe should continue to exist for billions of years more. But according to a new paper, there's one theory for the origins of the universe that predicts time itself will end in just five billion years—coincidentally, right around the time our sun is slated to die...10/28

Plague came from China: scientists

(Phys.Org) An international team of scientists sequenced 17 strains of Y. pestis, building a genetic "family tree" of pathogens that mutated from a common ancestor. "The results indicate that plague appeared in China more than 2,600 years ago," France's Museum of Natural History, which took part in the research, said...11/1