Deeper Blue s next move
the technology used to develop Deeper Blue, the ibm supercomputer that defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov, will be used to model and test new drugs. This would shorten the duration of their introduction in the market by reducing the average development period of a drug from 12 to about six years. According to ibm , the ability to compute millions of calculations in a second would be available within two years to scientists, enabling them to model new drugs and test their effects.
Pharmaceutical companies are already using powerful computers to speed up the development of new drugs, but they can take one or two months to determine a nanosecond's worth of interaction between 1,000 atoms. A supercomputer being developed by ibm would take no more than a day to model the effect of one million atoms on each other in a split second.
Riken, a Japanese research labora-tory, has placed an order for the supercomputer, which will be called md - Grape ii . The machine that works on 5,000 processors is due to be delivered to the Tokyo-based company by March 1999. Its ability to make millions of calculations in no time will allow researchers to test theories on the chemi-cals that comprise a potential drug.
Instead of using valuable laboratory time and space, scientists can model a variety of chemicals on the computer and mimic the conditions they are designed to combat. The supercomputer can then calculate the reaction of the drug inside the body, showing scientists whether they are on the right track within a day. A trained scientist would take a lifetime to figure out the calculations that md - Grape ii can carry out in little time.
The new ibm machine's initial tasks would include the development of possible cures for common cancers. The supercomputer technology can also be used for building machines that will solve business problems, in particular data mining. ibm is using the chess game between Kasparov and Deeper Blue as a strong marketing ploy to advertise the technology it plans to release.
In May this year, ibm unveiled radio modems that will allow computer users to browse the Internet, use e-mail, and send faxed messages from anywhere in their house or garden. The technology relies on two transceivers (combined transmitter and receiver). The first is plugged into the computer, and the second connected to the modem next to the telephone socket. The system allows its users to roam anywhere within 100 feet of the modem.
The company also claims that it will double the number of pixels per square inch on computer screens. This would provide flicker-free screens that can display high definition graphics and text. The new technology would have 150 to 200 pixels per square inch that would reflect more light than usual. The aim is to relieve the strain on the eyes and encourage users to read documents on the computer terminal instead of printing them.