While the objective of building a petaflop machine isn't new, here's some information I happened upon on the PR Newswire concerning progress towards the machine. I'm including a portion of the article since there is no URL:
3-D Transistor Key Enabling Technology to be Demonstrated
"COSTA MESA, Calif., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Irvine Sensors
Corporation (Nasdaq: IRSN, Boston: ISC) announced today that
it has received an approximate $738,000 research and development
contract from the United States Army Space and Missile Defense
Command to demonstrate the feasibility of an ultra high density
interconnect to enhance its 3D Artificial Neural Network(TM)
(3DANN(TM)) technology. The new interconnect is part of Irvine
Sensors' planned progression of technologies intended to eventually
lead to a "Silicon Brain," a recognition system conceived to emulate
performance of the human central nervous system. The Army's interest
in such technology is for potential application to ballistic missile
defense systems. Irvine Sensors believes that human-level recognition
technology could also have commercial applications in such fields as
medical diagnostics, DNA sequencing, radiography, security systems,
and speech recognition. Optical displays are also expected to benefit
from the three-dimensional active transistor interconnect technology
to be developed under the new contract."
"The problem being addressed by the Silicon Brain development can be
compared to that faced by a football quarterback who, when confronting
multiple threats and opportunities simultaneously, must take
instantaneous and decisive action. During missile defense, events
unfold even faster, and the threats and opportunities are much greater
in number. What you'd like is human-level intuitive responsiveness, but
at higher speeds and typically under adverse, humanly-impossible
conditions," said John C. Carson, Irvine Sensors' Sr. Vice President
and Chief Technical Officer. "Although it will take several years
before the technology can be made available for products, we believe
the Silicon Brain will ultimately be able to solve that problem...
attaining petaflop performance, or quadrillions of operations per
second, using less than ten watts of power, in one-third of a cubic
foot, or about the size of a shoebox. This will be the same volumetric
efficiency as the human brain."
(Copyright(c) 1998, PR Newswire)