News in Numbers

THE KEY FIGURES DRIVING THE LATEST ISSUES AND TRENDS IN TECHNOLOGY.

3000 metres

IS THE HEIGHT A 4G-ENABLED PANASONIC TOUGHBOOK, TETHERED TO A BALLOON, ROSE TO BEFORE LOSING CONNECTIVITY. THIS ESSENTIAL RESEARCH WAS CARRIED OUT BY PANASONIC, NETMOTION AND MICROSOFT, AND EVENTUALLY SAW THE LOFTY LAPTOP REACH 30.5KM, WHERE THE BALLOON EXPLODED. IT LANDED IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, APPARENTLY UNSCATHED.

US$33.5bn

IS HOW MUCH XEROX HAS BID TO BUY HP. THE BID WAS REJECTED, WITH HP’S BOARD SAYING IT “SIGNIFICANTLY UNDERVALUED” THE BUSINESS.

628MPH

IS THE SPEED BLOODHOUND LSR, A CAR POWERED BY A EUROFIGHTER JET ENGINE, ACHIEVED IN TESTING ON THE HAKSKEENPAN, IN THE KALAHARI DESERT, THIS MONTH. THE TEAM HOPES TO BREAK THE LAND SPEED RECORD OF 763MPH.

US$200m

IS THE AMOUNT VENTURE CAPITAL COMPANY ACCEL HAS INVESTED IN 1PASSWORD. THE PASSWORD MANAGEMENT COMPANY, FOUNDED IN 2005, HAS NEVER RECEIVED OUTSIDE INVESTMENT BEFORE.

65%

IS THE PROPORTION OF INTERNET

USERS USING THE CHROME

BROWSER IN OCTOBER 2019. SAFARI COMES SECOND ON 16%, WITH

FIREFOX THIRD ON 4.3%.

1000 PETAFLOPS

IS THE SLIGHTLY BAFFLING WAY THE US GOVERNMENT, CRAY AND INTEL ARE DESCRIBING THEIR LATEST JOINT VENTURE, THE AURORA SUPERCOMPUTER. A FLOP IS A MEASURE OF COMPUTING POWER THAT COUNTS FLOATING POINT OPERATIONS (SUMS, BASICALLY) PER SECOND, AND PETA IS WHAT COMES AFTER GIGA AND TERA – A THOUSAND MILLION MILLION. THIS MANY FLOPS IS ENABLED BY LOTS OF INTEL CPUS & GPUS, AND THE SUPERCOMPUTER WILL BE THE MOST POWERFUL IN THE WORLD (THAT WE KNOW OF) WHEN IT LAUNCHES IN 2021.