(2/7/99)

They're calling it the fastest supercomputer in the world, and it was designed and built by a local company. The company says its new computing technology will revolutionize the computer industry. Today Star Bridge Systems of Sandy showed its new hypercomputer exclusively to News Specialist Pamela Davis.

This black box is a big breakthrough in computer technology, according to the people who put it together.

Kent Gilson spent some 15 years re-inventing computing -- not at a big computer corporation, but in his own home. He is Star Bridge Systems' Chief Technology Officer. "There's an entire universe of things you can do on this machine you can't do on any other machine," he says.

This hyper-computer, nicknamed Hal, can operate up to 60,000 times faster than an average home computer. To understand how much more powerful this hypercomputer is compared to a regular pc, think about how much more powerful a regular pc is - compared to a calculator. This practically is a calculator, compared to Hal.

What gives this supercomputer its super-powers? A technique Kent Gilson pioneered, called re-configurable computing.

Each time Gilson re-arranges the wires on the circuitboard, he makes the circuit do a different task. Now imagine him re-arranging wires a thousand times per second!

That's what Hal does -- and it has 100-billion circuits to work with. Hal is so smart, and so powerful, it can even reprogram itself if one of its circuitboards fails!

Brent Ward, Star Bridge Systems Executive Vice-President, says, "You could shoot a bullet through our computer, or through one of its boards, and it will keep functioning."

You might recognize actor Larry Wilcox from the t.vshow "CHiPs." He says he's shifting his showbiz career into Hollywood-style information technology. He's paying Star Bridge Systems to help him do it.

Wilcox says, "I mean, when you start thinking about special effects and post production, and Titanic taking months to do special effects when this technology could do it in minutes, if not days -- It's going to have an enormous effect."

This once unheard-of company expects to be "heard of" this week, now that it has unveiled Hal for all to see. But its address is a secret, for security reasons.

When you have a computer that's worth more than its weight in solid gold, you lock it up tight, every night.

Link to Star Bridge Systems web site