Jos Kirps's Popular Science and Technology Blog
February updates...
February 08, 2010January is already over and I didn't even find the time to post a single message on my blog :-( Anyway, there was a lot of work as we migrated all of our websites to a new server during the past few weeks, and we updated a lot of stuff at the same time. Unfortunately we had to deal with some performance problems after the migration, we hope this will be fixed soon...
We've also set up our new application and file server - the software powering this machine is performing very well and it will be released as an Open Source project this year. All of our internal stuff has been moved to the new architecture and we're very happy with the results.
Within the next few days we'll also release another CorneliOS update - the basic development strategy remains the same, although some planned user interface features have been axed while we'll be focusing on some additional CIOS libraries that will be required for some of our upcoming projects.
As already mentioned in a few of my previous posts we intend to launch some really cool new stuff in 2010, but I won't give you any more details right now, although I can tell that we're very excited about our latest prototypes...
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Happy New Year!
December 31, 2009
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Last updates for 2009...
December 30, 20092009 was mostly about updating our infrastructure and technologies - the recording studio is now operational, our file and application server is up and running, all of our PowerPC based Macs have been retired and most of the software has been updated.
CorneliOS is progressing well, CIOS has become a viable basis for our platforms and a lot of new software and multimedia projects will be ready for release in 2010. Two days ago we've released CorneliOS 0.9.12r28 which will be the last update for this year. This will also be the last release of CorneliOS Developer Preview One, in January we'll move on with CorneliOS DP2.
CorneliOS Developer Preview Two (DP2) will mostly focus on the Virtual File System (VFS), the user manager and the database manager. As mentioned before we'll also release some new software and multimedia projects in 2010, but we won't reveal any these yet. Check back soon for further updates...
In January we'll start moving most of our software platforms onto a new webserver. At the same time we'll do some refactoring, which means that parts of the project code will be transformed into reusable CorneliOS and/or CIOS libraries. Most projects will also be cleaned up and get an updated design.
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Software updates...
November 03, 2009After the announcement of the new CorneliOS software strategy we've made some serious progress, so I'm glad to reveal some details now...
Yesterday we've released the CorneliOS WebOS 0.9.11, which finally adds support for multiple languages in the CMS. This was one of the last popular OLEFA features that was not yet available for CorneliOS, and we're really happy that the CorneliOS implementation is even better than expected.
The next big challenge will be the full implementation of the CorneliOS VFS (Virtual File System) specifications, which includes the DAC (Dynamic Access Control) permission model as well as built-in backup features.
We're now also working on dedicated websites for CorneliOS developers and end users, although these will only be released in 2010.
A first CorneliOS website for the Unversity of Luxembourg has just been completed - mondiab.com is a website for people suffering from diabetes.
A new OLMO CMS developer preview will probably become available next week, it shall include a Content Management System offering some basic features. It may even include a first release of the OLMO client utility.
This week we're also installing our new application server, which will run a new CRM/SRM & project management software that's more or less a successor of the original OLEFA EiS (Enterprise Intelligence System). It's a CIOS project making heavy use of the CorneliOS SQL application libraries.
This software will (of course) also become available under the GNU General Public License (GPL), although I can't tell when it will be ready for a first release.
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Software simulation of a human brain
October 07, 2009The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level, and it is hoped that it will eventually shed light on the nature of consciousness.
In December 2006 the initial goal of the project had been completed: the simulation of a rat neocortical column, which is also responsible for conscious thought of rats. Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, then said that he thinks it will be possible to simulate a human brain, including aspects of consciousness, within only 10 years. The project has been launched in 2005 by scientists in Switzerland, Europe, and uses an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer running a software called NEURON. The NEURON software is capable of simulating an artificial neural network and offers a biologically realistic model of brain structures.NEURON was primarily developed by Michael Hines, John W. Moore, and Ted Carnevale at Yale and Duke. The software simulates brain structures while it offers a shell, an own scripting language as well as a Python interface. The software is known for its extreme parallelism, which allows to take full advantage of massively parallel supercomputers. The project currently uses an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer, which is required to allow simultaneous simulation of thousands of neurons (and probably millions in future).
The IBM Blue Gene supercomputer is powered by thousands of PowerPC processors. Each compute node contains two CPUs as well as a cache sub-system and the logic to support multiple communication sub-systems. Compute nodes are packaged two per compute card, with 16 compute cards plus up to 2 I/O nodes per node board. There are 32 node boards per rack. Each Blue Gene/L node is attached to three parallel communications networks, including a 3D toroidal network for peer-to-peer communication between compute nodes.
Using this outstanding combination of software and hardware, the project leaders even expect that it may become possible to simulate a first mammmal brain as soon as in 2010.
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