I hadn't read about the CHIME (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment) telescope before.
From the wikipedia article:
> The telescope's low-noise amplifiers are built with components adapted from the cellphone industry and its data are processed using a custom-built FPGA electronic system and 1000-processor high-performance GPGPU cluster.
that's super interesting. My limited exposure to radio astronomy relies on a lot more custom collection hardware (super cooled LNAs, with hydrogen maser clocks, ...) and mostly pure software processing. Seeing this very COTS hardware with careful processing systems is neat.
Bitcoin's efficiency is not relevant to the discussion. Every other comment about energy consumption pulls replies with complaints about Bitcoin mining. It brings nothing new, it distracts from the topic, generally lowers the quality of the discussion. Don't do it. If you must vent, do it where it's on topic.
Why start this discussion. It's slightly expediting the heat death of the universe for no reason. Are you trying to eliminate all order in the universe???
I completely agree. I think it makes sense when they have 256 processing nodes with GPUs plus everything else, just the number caught me off guard at first.
I work on a plasma confinement device that has a linear regulator in its 100 kV gyrotron power supply that uses 6 kW just to keep the filament warm. The coils use 10 MW during a shot. And this is considered a small machine.
We use 18 DC train motors with 1-ton flywheels on them. Currently they spin up to 1650 RPM then get turned into generators. It takes about a second to spin up the very inductive copper coils to the desired current then the shot lasts 100 ms. After the shot the motors are spinning at 1200 RPM and it takes 5 minutes to get back up to 1650 RPM.
Well the pay is about half the market rate and I'm leaving soon because my SO's research group is moving across the country. I suppose I'll just go work for industry and be able to pay off student loans/own a house in my life.
Science could hold on to talent if only there was a budget for it.
From the wikipedia article:
> The telescope's low-noise amplifiers are built with components adapted from the cellphone industry and its data are processed using a custom-built FPGA electronic system and 1000-processor high-performance GPGPU cluster.
that's super interesting. My limited exposure to radio astronomy relies on a lot more custom collection hardware (super cooled LNAs, with hydrogen maser clocks, ...) and mostly pure software processing. Seeing this very COTS hardware with careful processing systems is neat.
> The telescope consumes 250 kilowatts of power.
woah.