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Today’s topics include Docker’s introduction of new security initiatives, how Nvidia’s Tesla GPUs are helping to speed up IBM’s Watson, China’s latest moves in supercomputers, and Microsoft’s collaboration with Code.org on a Minecraft tutorial.
As Docker container adoption grows, so does the need for robust security. Yesterday at the DockerCon EU Conference in Barcelona, Spain, Docker announced several new security-focused efforts.
Docker’s foray into security tools got its first big push in August, when Docker Content Trust was featured alongside the Docker 1.8.0 release. Docker Content Trust makes use of the open-source Notary project, which aims to enable secure content updates via authenticated and signed application images.
Yesterday, IBM announced it is using Nvidia Tesla K80 graphics processing units to accelerate the retrieve and rank API capabilities of its Watson cognitive computing system.
IBM said that by using the Nvidia Tesla K80 GPUs—the flagship offering of the Nvidia Tesla Computing Platform—coupled with Watson’s Power-based architecture, Watson’s retrieve and rank API capabilities increased by 1.7 times its normal speed. This speed-up can further improve the cost/performance of Watson’s cloud-based services.
In the latest top 500 list of the world’s fastest computer systems, the number of systems in China grew from 37 in July to 109, which surpasses Europe.
China’s Tianhe-2 “Milky Way” supercomputer, which is housed at the country’s National University of Defense Technology, has been the top system since 2013. Tianhe-2 is powered by Intel’s 12-core Xeon E5-2692 processors and Xeon Phi coprocessors.
Yesterday Microsoft, Mojang AB and Code.org announced that a Minecraft coding tutorial for students and educators has been created for the third-annual Hour of Code, which is a campaign to broaden global participation in computer science.
According to a description on the game’s official Website, Minecraft is a game about assembling blocks to build anything you can imagine.
Designed for ages six and up, the Minecraft tutorial introduces players to basic coding skills by encouraging them to navigate, mine, and craft as they explore the 2D Minecraft world.