Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The Data Center Monolith

The Monolith was A.C.C.'s depiction of a hybrid-mainframe-topological-quantum-supercomputer-server. Whether in the year 2001 or 2011 such quantum machines still only exist at the theoretical concept level, as does time travel.

The old IBM tower is located next to the Marinacity complex.
( Reference photo from, stevendahlman.com )
http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/95899186/Hulton-Archive?language=en-US&location=CAN
The former IBM Building at 330_North_Wabash, Chicago was designed to look like a 700 foot tall monolith computer.
"For the time it was built the IBM Building housed an extraordinarily large number of computers, which required an advanced level of environmental engineering. The walls were sealed by a plastic thermal barrier, and a reverse refrigeration system was used to reclaim heat given off by machines and people." http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&lng=3&id=ibmbuilding-chicago-il-usa
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So far the iP5 isn't quite shaped like a pocket monolith computer phone, but the iP5 has a lot of interesting features & potential. The Android phones don't seem to offer a monolith version either. Perhaps because its better to have rounded corners, but some people still might like to have a monolith phone. However, that option may have to wait quite a while until you can carry a room temperature quantum computer in your pocket.