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Well, Watson was written in Java.... Seriously though, While you could write a simple wiki search engine to get decent results right away I think IBM is playin
by spitfire 16y ago
Well, Watson was written in Java....
Seriously though, While you could write a simple wiki search engine to get decent results right away I think IBM is playing the long game. Taking the much more difficult (15 people 5 years) game for long term results. The begining results like this jeopardy game don't seem that impressive, but if the watson technology is as impressive as ibm make out I'm sure it'll broaden in time.
On the other hand, I found the use of power chips over x86-64 a bit suspect. That was clearly IBM sales at work.
- gojomo 16y agoIf another IBM engineer walked in on the Watson team and showed them his single-server (32 core, 512GB RAM) alternative that performed on par with the Big Iron approach, do you think IBM corporate's reaction would have been: • "Great, now we can haul the unit to Jeopardy's Burbank studios for a showdown ASAP!" ...or... • "Hold that thought for the future, we've already frozen the datasheets and shot lots of footage of the server room that's perfect for the show and B-rolls."
- spitfire 16y agoI agree with you. Don't change horses midstream. I think the choice to go with power was flawed to begin with. But for better (financially) or worse they decided to do that. Mind you, several racks worth of computer always looks cooler. You'd be a bit disappointed if Alex Trebek opened the rack door to find a 1u Dell inside.
- mcav 16y agoI'm sure IBM would rather sell Watson-sized devices to businesses than a single server.