University of Illinois CS alumnus Max Levchin is profiled in an article on the New York Times.
Mr. Levchin, who is now 32, is typical of a new generation of junior titans in Silicon Valley who might be called the prematurely rich — techies worth tens of millions of dollars, sometimes more, at an age when many others are just starting to figure out what to do with their lives.
New York Times: After Succeeding, Young Tycoons Try, Try Again
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has received funding through the National Science Foundation to build a supercomputer 500 times faster than current supercomputers. This is huge – we’re again at the top of supercomputing power! (We were eighth) The National Center for Supercomputing Applications will manage the new system, called “Blue Waters.” Way to go NCSA.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will receive $208 million over 4.5 years to acquire and make available a petascale computer it calls “Blue Waters,” which is 500 times more powerful than today’s typical supercomputers. The system is expected to go online in 2011.
National Science Board Approves Funds for Petascale Computing Systems
1200 Dell PowerEdge 1955s blades
90 teraflops of processing power
9.6 terabytes of DDR2 RAM
. . . And that is just one of the five working supercomputers at the NCSA here on the University of Illinois campus. This interesting report details the history of the NCSA, how much computing power they actually have, and what they do about heat and energy with all those computers running 24/7.
TG Daily – NCSA: A look inside one of the world’s most capable supercomputer facilities
Why a computer science degree? Here’s why!
Okay, so the classes are HARD. That’s the best part. Getting your ass kicked gives a bit of perspective into the working world of programming. There are HARD problems. HARD problems are fun. The great developers that I know are always trying to tackle tough problems and expand their knowledge.
A Computer Science Degree Doesn’t Hurt (Much)
