Tidbits

Anthony LoPinto

Technology is advancing at warp speed on so many fronts. For example, the Apollo 11 computer had a processor which ran at 0.043 MHz. The latest iPhone’s processor is estimated to run at about 2490 MHz. This means that the iPhone in your pocket has over 100,000 times the processing power of the computer that landed man on the moon 50 years ago.

That’s interesting, but even more astounding is Google’s announcement that its new “quantum” machine needs less than 3.5 minutes to perform calculations that would take a traditional computer 10,000 years! Google reports that the machine has no immediate uses, but it foreshadows big advances in artificial intelligence, or the machine could easily crack the code on the encryption that protects computers vital to national security. Fascinating digits and bits.