Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!grads.cs.ubc.ca!leblanc
From: leblanc@grads.cs.ubc.ca (David LeBlanc)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Building a brain
Keywords: hardware brain
Message-ID: <5259@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: 13 Oct 89 19:02:50 GMT
References: <14079@well.UUCP>
Sender: news@cs.ubc.ca
Reply-To: leblanc@grads.cs.ubc.ca (David LeBlanc)
Distribution: comp
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 21

In article <14079@well.UUCP> nagle@well.UUCP (John Nagle) writes:
#
#       Hans Moravec, in Mind Children, rates human brains at about 10^6 MIPS
#and 10^15 bits of storage.  
#
#       I have before me an ad for a single VMEbus board mounting eight 
#M88200 processors running at 33MHz.  The manufacturer (Tadpole Technology)
#claims 220 MIPS for this unit.
#
#       So, to get the raw CPU power of a brain, we need about 5000 boards,
#or 227 standard VME cages, or 76 racks, or about 150 linear feet of cabinetry.
#
#       I've worked in mainframe installations bigger than that.
#
#       If we knew how to solve the architecture problems, we could build
#the hardware.  

Whether the numbers are right or not, you won't get anything until we (the
collective we) figure out the internal structures and wiring of the brain.

David LeBlanc