A group of 10 universities led by the University of California, San Diego is undertaking a $50.5 million effort to greatly improve the speed and efficiency of computers, work that could do everything from make drug discovery faster to create better weather forecasts.
The coalition, which includes such schools as Stanford and UCLA, hinges on making advances in software and next-generation computer chips. Among other things, both are needed to more rapidly move data from memory sources to processors.
"Right now, it takes an average of 6.5 years and tremendous computing power to determine which pharmaceutical compounds should be tested in clinical trials — and more than 90 percent of the trials fail," said Tajana Šimunić Rosing, the UCSD computer engineering professor who is leading the project.
