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Postcards from Tomorrow's Data Centers

Kevin Fogarty April 16, 2013 08:00 AM Today's data centers are essentially the same: long rows of metal racks stocked with machines, miles of cable, and elaborate cooling systems. But just because we build data centers this way in 2013 doesn't mean that's how it will be in ten, twenty or fifty years. Here's a few glimpses of what the future might hold, from printable electronics to nanotube processors to nuclear batteries.

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The Power of Probability

Photo: Quantum Computing

Image Source: National Institutes of Standards and Technology

Uncertainty is a bad thing in computing, unless it's a quantum computer that eschews bits for qubits, which can be 0, 1 or, somehow, both at the same time. Using semi-explainable phenomena like quantum entanglement and probability, quantum computers could gobble data in volumes orders of magnitude greater than your pathetic, Euclidian transistors and bits.

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