Self-wiring supercomputer

Researchers at the Edinburgh (Scotland, not Indiana) Parallel Computer Center are building an energy efficient one-teraflop supercomputer about the size of four PCs (a 2GHz P4 runs at just a few gigaflops). While modest by super-computing standards (hundreds of teraflops), this type of horsepower usually requires 100 times the energy consumption and enough silicon and plastic to fill a room. The power and efficiencies stem from the use of 64 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips (instead of conventional microprocessors) which can be "reconfigured using software to mimic computer processing equipment that is physically designed to take on specialized tasks." And therein lies the rub — FPGA hardware is more difficult to program 'cause a programmer must understand how to tweak the underlying hardware. Well, let us know when you sort it out 'cause we're jonesin' to make a hook-up: Mr. Self-Replicating robot meet Mrs. Self-Wiring supercomputer. Then we'll silently slip on our black-and-white Nikes and await the birthing of our synthetic overlords.