It may be a matter of national pride (and, as a result, an effective mechanism that some may use to siphon funding from Congress to subsidize HPC research), but the much more important question is whether we are investing in the education and training of the next generation of computer scientists who will use the power from such machines.

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The idea was to be so much better than Intel by making a chip that could run a computer very fast but use very little power.

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Despite the buzz the company has generated, VMware didn't invent virtualization, a class of software that makes better use of the processing power inside computer servers.

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The ship would use 60% wind power, relying on three computer-operated masts rising 55-meters -- as tall as a 14-storey building.

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Now, however, thanks to the dramatic decline in the cost of computer power, wireless devices are far cleverer, meaning that they can use spectrum more efficiently and are more tolerant of interference.

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Microwave ovens, cellphone chargers, DVD players, computer monitors and printers all silently consume power when they aren't in use.

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No one had the computer power to massage all the numbers, so there wasn't any use in standardizing everything.

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Although in decline over the last year or so notebook computer makers appear to be poised to offer thin and light weight, reasonably priced products that provide performance and power use like those of flash memory devices with the storage costs of hard disk drives.

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