sysut1 - Slashdot User

Submission + - GIMP dropped from Ubuntu 10.04 (digitizor.com) 2

Submitted by kai_hiwatari on Thursday November 19, 2009 @01:53AM

kai_hiwatari writes: It seems like the Ubuntu developers consider GIMP to be too powerful for a normal desktop user. So they are removing it from the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04. This actually feels like a good reason as most people uses GIMP as a "Paint"-like software.

Submission + - Final piece of quantum simulation puzzle found (arxiv.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19, 2009 @01:39AM

An anonymous reader writes: A new paper on the physics preprint server arXiv.org today announced the development of a quantum version of the Metropolis algorithm. Richard Feynman's vision for quantum computers to solve arbitrary quantum simulation problems is the most important application of quantum computers, and this paper presents a final and crucial piece of the puzzle for theoretically enabling efficient quantum simulations. Until now it was unknown how to efficiently prepare a state with realistic starting conditions for a large physical system. The Quantum Metropolis Algorithm solves this problem using inspiration and ideas from the classical Metropolis algorithm that was invented in the 1940's to solve the same problem in classical simulation, and has become a crucial part of computational physics and statistics ever since.

Submission + - Building a 32-bit One Instruction Computer

Submitted by

Hugh Pickens

on Thursday November 19, 2009 @12:18AM

Hugh Pickens writes: "The advantages of RISC are well known — simplifying the CPU core by reducing the complexity of the instruction set allows faster speeds, more registers, and pipelining to provide the appearance of single cycle execution. Al Williams writes in Dr Dobbs about taking RISC to it's logical conclusion by designing a functional computer called One-Der with only a single simple instruction — a 32-bit Transfer Triggered Architecture (TTA) CPU that operates at roughly 10 MIPS. "When I tell this story in person, people are usually squirming with the inevitable question: What's the one instruction?" writes Williams. "It turns out there's several ways to construct a single instruction CPU, but the method I had stumbled on does everything via a move instruction (hence the name, "Transfer Triggered Architecture")." The CPU is implemented on a a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device and the prototype works on a "Spartan 3 Starter Board" with an XS3C1000 device available from Digilent that has the equivalent of about 1,000,000 logic gates costing between $100 and $200. "Applications that can benefit from custom instruction in hardware — things like digital signal processing, for example — are ideal for One-Der since you can implement parts of your algorithm in hardware and then easily integrate those parts with the CPU.""

Comment Re:Beyond the Alien (Score 1) 336

by sysut1 on Saturday August 01, 2009 @07:43AM (#28907751) Attached to: Ridley Scott Directing Alien Prequel

Now think about the world that could produce such a creature, with all those defenses. The Aliens.... are not even CLOSE to the top of the food chain. Imagine what horrors you would find on the world that produced them....

In a novel adapted from the original scenario, there was significant hints that the aliens were not a species, but a biological weapon that proved to be too dangerous even for their creators.

Now, that could lead to an interesting prequel...

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