• Question: Can computers keep getting faster?

    Asked by anon-201636 to Meirin on 12 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Meirin Oan Evans

      Meirin Oan Evans answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      Yes computers can and have to keep getting faster! One of the things particle physics research does is push forward the boundaries of computing. For example, when our current particle physics machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), was being planned, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid was set up. At the time, this was pioneering and allowed scientists to use particle physics data much faster, by putting the power of many thousands of computers together. It’s called the grid for the same reason as the electricity grid, it doesn’t matter where your data or electricity come from, as long as they get to you! I imagine similar advances in computing will happen in the future.

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