For the sake of comparison, AMSC indicates in their literature that a 10 MW superconductor generator would have a nacelle-generator combination weighing approximately 420 tons, compared with a conventional direct-drive machine weighing over 800 tons.

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The "systemic" machine operates very differently to conventional PCs and desktops, which execute instructions in an ordered, linear fashion.

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The driver drives up to a ticket machine as he or she would in a conventional car park.

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But he said that because it was the first time an epidural had been used in heart surgery "we kept ready as a standby the conventional method of heart surgery through a heart and lung machine".

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Although the machine is not a technical tour de force, its compactness, glowing green transparent shell, absence of conventional cables and simplicity appeal to both traditional Macophiles and computer virgins.

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