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Hardware acceleration for data processing has a long history. It’s not new. When I was a child, my dad outfitted our 12 MHz 286 system with the optional 80287 Floating Point Unit (FPU) coprocessor, which ran at a whopping 4.7MHz. The thing was a beast. It did wonders for Lotus 1–2–3. Not long after, this specific FPU was integrated into the CPU, reducing the need for the external coprocessor for math operations. However, coprocessor actually stuck around for longer. You know that GPU you’re using to read this article? DSPs in your mobile phone? Sound card? They’re all coprocessors, and there’s a reason they’re still around. Your CPU can’t do everything No, really. It can’t. The actual silicon for the Intel x86 (the heir to the 8086 and my beloved 80286) architecture is already crazy complex. Adding additional operations to the x86 architecture has diminishing returns, according to Rick Merrit of the EETimes. to the point where it may not be worth it In fact, GlobalFoundries, one of the largest silicon chip manufacturers has announced it’s . It’s just not worth it anymore. abandoning plans for 7nm chips Intel Haswell-EP Xeon E5–2699 V3 Die on wccftech Why is that a problem? Well, each processor core in the x86 architecture does so many different things, that it has actually made programmers complacent. Don’t worry about writing bad software — the processor will make sure it runs fast! Of course, Intel already knew this back in the early 2000s. They tried to kill off the x86 architecture with Itanium, a processor series designed for 64-bit computing. However, AMD had a different plan, and released 64-bit capable x86 processors, obstructing Intel’s plans. And that’s how we ended up with this mess. Going multicore The only way to get more oomph out of CPUs was to scale them out. That’s why today’s CPUs are almost always multi-core. They have anywhere from 2 to 28 cores for higher end server chips like the Intel Xeon series. The clever pipelining and vectorization, caching, and some other complex systems found in the x86 architecture allow for pretty good use of the miniature electronics. Some tasks can run in groups, and the processor may even correctly predict what the next actions are, before they happen. However, as I previously mentioned — these processors are already crazy complex. Other architectures do exist. ARM, which you can find in a huge variety of devices — from battery chargers to your phone, and even your car — has a reduced instruction set, also known as RISC. IBM has similarly gone the RISC route. RISC processors have a much simpler core, which can’t do as much as more elaborate CPU cores. Software has to be specifically written to be multi-core to benefit from these kinds of processors. For now, x86 has a stay of execution. It could be another 10, 15 years, but x86 will be going away. If you’re interested in finding out more about what Intel was doing to enable parallel processing, read “The Story of ISPC”, about the Intel SPMD Program Compiler: https://pharr.org/matt/blog/2018/04/18/ispc-origins.html Here come the GPUs and GPGPUs Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) are also not really new. The term has , but tended to focus strictly on graphics. NVIDIA’s first card marketed as a “GPU” was the GeForce 256, from 2009. However, General Purpose GPUs ( s) actually started appearing around 2007, when NVIDIA and ATI (now AMD) started equipping their 3D graphics cards with more and more capabilities, like Unified Pixel Shaders. These capabilities could be repurposed to perform operations like matrix multiplications, Fast Fourier Transform, wavelet transform, and more. been in use since 1986 at least GPGPU NVIDIA Tesla C870 with 128 CUDA cores ( ) NVIDIA Accessing these features meant that new programming constructs had to be invented. So, in 2008, Apple started developing OpenCL. By late 2009 it was already adopted by AMD, IBM, Qualcom, Intel, and even NVIDIA. AMD decided to support OpenCL extensively, instead of their “Close to Metal” framework. AMD’s Radeon Pro V340, with 512GB/s of memory bandwidth. Source: AMD While NVIDIA supported and still supports OpenCL, they didn’t abandon their own framework, known as CUDA. Today, CUDA is the de-facto standard for high-speed, high-throughput GPU computing. It’s essentially a software layer that gives direct access to the GPU’s virtual instruction set and parallel computational elements, for the execution of compute kernels. Newer NVIDIA GPUs have up to 5,760 CUDA cores With 256 cores in 2009, and with up to 5,760 cores in a single modern GPU, I think it’s easy to see why GPUs are useful for operations that require a high degree of parallelism. But it’s not just parallelism — GPUs have extremely large memory bandwidth, which makes it suitable for high-throughput applications. Why don’t we just replace CPUs with GPUs? Not all applications are suitable for GPUs. GPUs are mostly useful if: The actions are repetitive The actions are mostly independant (do not rely on eachother) The actions are computationally intensive GPUs have found some interesting uses outside of graphics (and cryptomining). Today, GPUs are found in a variety of data processing scenarios. They can be used as part of a data processing pipeline, for running machine learning models on, as part of a hardware accelerated relational database, or just render a result nicely. Let’s take a look at three of the main areas where GPUs can help in the data processing pipeline: GPUs for Stream Processing New stream processing solutions, like ’s Plasma Engine can take advantage of GPUs for stream processing data coming in and out of databases (GPU or not). This tool can be used to perform analysis and/or transformation of streaming data on the GPU. FASTDATA.io The main competitor to FASTDATA’s engine is , which is available as an open-source add-on from IBM. GPU-enabled Spark GPU Databases for Analytics Practically all GPU databases are ground-up, purpose built for analytics. GPU Databases. Source: The 2018 Big Data Landscape The reason for building a GPU database from scratch seems to be the difficulty in retrofitting an old, row-based database with a very different technologies. There are several players in the GPU database field, each with their own benefits: OmniSci (formerly MapD) — In-memory GPU database for geospatial use-cases SQream DB — GPU data warehouse for larger-than-RAM data-sets BlazingDB — GPU database based on Parquet Kinetica — In-memory GPU database HeteroDB — Postgres plugin, based on UDFs for fast NVMe access Brytlyt — Postgres plugin for in-memory compute Blazegraph — Graph database GPUs for machine learning Machine learning tends to be highly suitable for GPU architecture. It’s not just about the high level of parallelism, and the multitude of matrix operations. A big part of the reason is actually the aforementioned memory bandwidth. NVIDIA Tesla V100 core-arrangement. Source: ServeTheHome CPUs are what we call latency-oriented processors. Latency-oriented means that they favor lower latency of operations with clock cycles in the nanoseconds (~3 billion operations per second on one piece of data). In contrast, GPUs are throughput oriented. They will perform a single operation over lots of data at once, at a lower clock speed (~1 billion operations per second on multiple chunks of data). GPUs sacrifice latency with a slower clock speed, in order to get a higher throughput on every clock cycle. There is no shortage in different GPU-enabled machine learning frameworks: TensorFlow cuBLAS Caffe Theano Torch7 cuDNN MATLAB cxxnet/mxnet Deeplearning4j Keras Mathematica and many more. Not just GPUs — ASICs, FPGAs and other exotic hardware While CPUs and GPUs are general purpose, we have some other alternatives in hardware, but there are trade-offs. We’ve already discussed CPUs and GPUs, so let’s talk about FPGAs and ASICs specifically. FPGAs Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are a high-speed, programmable chip. They’re extremely popular for prototyping and specialist devices. They contain an array of programmable logic blocks, and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects. Because FPGAs are programmable, they can be altered after they’ve been manufactured, but not by anyone. They provide good performance, but can cost quite a bit — which is why they remain mostly in low-yield devices. You can find FPGAs in medical equipment, cars, specialist equipment, etc. FPGAs provide higher memory bandwidth, lower power consumption than CPUs (and GPUs), but they may struggle with floating point computations, and are hard to work with. In fact, they’re quite difficult to program for, even though recent tooling like OpenCL for FPGA exists. In data analytics, FPGAs are suited for simple repetitive tasks. They’re found in modern platforms like , the , the , and devices like . One of the most well-known usage of FPGAs in analytics is , although the FPGA aspect of Netezza seems to have been mostly abandoned. Microsoft’s Project Brainwave Swarm64 Database Accelerator for Postgres Xilinx Alveo Data Center Accelerator Ryft IBM’s Netezza Eventually, Netezza ended up as part of and the FPGA components were used primarily for specific operations that would benefit from FPGAs like decompression and transformations. Other operations still used the CPU. IBM PureData Source: IBM Data Retrieval Technologies RDBMS, BLU, IBM Netezza and Hadoop ASICs Custom designed Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) are the fastest option for high-speed operations, in the silicon level. Because these chips are highly customized, they can deliver the best performance with minimal overhead. ASICs are commonly found as digital signal processors (DSPs) — in audio processing, video encoding, and networking among others. These applications are primarily in mass-produced devices like cameras, mobile phones, wireless routers, etc. Because of the high cost and time investment in creating custom ASICs, they are also the most costly option. They are actually the cheaper option if you plan on manufacturing millions of them, but at smaller volumes they are hard to justify. For that reason, they’re not commonly found in analytics or data processing proper. Comparing the tradeoffs Here’s a summary of the different processors and their tradeoffs: Each of the processor types has its own tradeoffs The future of hardware accelerated data processing The future is in hardware diversity, but not all of the coprocessors are suitable for every task. : Keep standard, sequential programs and code running The CPU’s job Run high-throughput parallel code The Coprocessor’s job: Increase the throughput of parallel programs CPU + Coprocessor: It’s clear that the x86 CPU architecture will not last forever. It simply is not sustainable for the long-run. It’s not advancing at the same rate that modern data workloads are. Because they’re not bound to the same backwards compatibility, GPUs are advancing much faster. Modern data workloads are varied, varying, growing, and fast-moving. GPU and other hardware accelerated data processing applications are growing in popularity, with some notable successes in the machine learning space and data warehousing space. Tesla V100 with NVLink GPU-to-GPU and GPU-to-CPU (Power9) connections. Source: NVIDIA FPGA and GPU-enabled hardware, like IBM Power9 with NVLINK and OpenCAPI, as well as Azure and AWS GPU and FPGA instances are just a sign of things to come. Conclusion I believe hardware accelerated data processing is still in it’s infancy, but is likely to become more widespread, as the accelerating technologies continue to make strides over today’s CPU architecture. Thanks for reading this to the end! I know it isn’t easy — there’s a lot of information (and acronyms) to digest. This article is the first in a series of hardware accelerated data articles. In my next article, I will deep dive into how different hardware accelerated databases utilize their respective hardware accelerators. If you enjoyed this article, leave a comment below, or share with your friends and colleagues.

A gentle introduction to hardware accelerated data processing

Ryta Zasiekina, founder of breakthrough fintech project Concryt, has announced her status as an angel investor to another innovative startup which aligns with both her mission to support fledgling businesses and her passion for emerging technologies. A qualified engineer, in 2021, Ryta obtained an MBA degree with a strong emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI). In recent months, she has been looking for opportunities to become an angel investor for fledging AI, cybersecurity, and fintech businesses operating online. Earlier this year she was approached by Manerai, a California-based VR studio specializing in game development. The business was founded by a 27-year-old game designer with almost a decade of experience in the industry. His love of VR and game development has led to the creation of Wadality, a unique VR movement system that allows players to freely explore game levels in any direction. Manerai’s most recently released game organically gained more than 200,000 players in VR and received a 4.9 out of 5 review from players around the world, bringing it to the attention of partners at Meta and a request to take the game into the lucrative Chinese market. Manerai’s latest project is a social role-play collaboration game called GNOMES. Described as ‘the ultimate VR role-playing game’, it promises immersive multiplayer gameplay that encourages teamwork and problem-solving.  To help the firm reach the next level of development, Ryta has invested 300K USD. Commenting on the investment, Ryta said: “As an angel investor, I’m thrilled to support this innovative VR gaming venture that is redefining the boundaries of immersive entertainment. Manerai is at the forefront of VR gaming, and I am beyond excited to help them reach their next level of growth. Virtual reality has the power to transform how we experience games, and this team is at the forefront of that evolution. I believe their creativity, vision, and technical expertise will shape the future of gaming, and I’m excited to be part of their journey as they push the limits of what’s possible." As of 2023, there are 65.9 million VR users in the U.S., with an estimated 171 million VR users worldwide. ManerAI aims to share skills and useful information with others operating in the VR gaming space and, as such, has several open-source libraries. Manerai added: “Our overall mission is not just to create a game, but a virtual community where players themselves can self-organize, create content, tasks, missions and goals. Our unique vision for VR games is to focus on comfort and fun, and to make all in-game mechanics behave as expected. We have a clear direction and know what we need to do to maximize the strength of the game organically, helped by the fact we are now actively accompanied by our advisors at New Folder Games, market leaders in VR games. We are incredibly grateful to Ryta for her interest and investment in the business; it will be crucial as we continue to expand our team, test new hypotheses and products, and increase player numbers.” The announcement follows Ryta’s investment in Teramot earlier this year. Teramot is a plug-and-play Data Engineering and Data Analytics tool that allows businesses to organize and take advantage of their information without a dedicated team in a week. Ryta Zasiekina, founder of breakthrough fintech project Concryt , has announced her status as an angel investor to another innovative startup which aligns with both her mission to support fledgling businesses and her passion for emerging technologies. Concryt Concryt A qualified engineer, in 2021, Ryta obtained an MBA degree with a strong emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI). In recent months, she has been looking for opportunities to become an angel investor for fledging AI, cybersecurity, and fintech businesses operating online. Earlier this year she was approached by Manerai, a California-based VR studio specializing in game development. The business was founded by a 27-year-old game designer with almost a decade of experience in the industry. His love of VR and game development has led to the creation of Wadality, a unique VR movement system that allows players to freely explore game levels in any direction. Manerai’s most recently released game organically gained more than 200,000 players in VR and received a 4.9 out of 5 review from players around the world, bringing it to the attention of partners at Meta and a request to take the game into the lucrative Chinese market. Manerai’s latest project is a social role-play collaboration game called GNOMES. Described as ‘the ultimate VR role-playing game’, it promises immersive multiplayer gameplay that encourages teamwork and problem-solving.  To help the firm reach the next level of development, Ryta has invested 300K USD. Commenting on the investment, Ryta said: “As an angel investor, I’m thrilled to support this innovative VR gaming venture that is redefining the boundaries of immersive entertainment. Manerai is at the forefront of VR gaming, and I am beyond excited to help them reach their next level of growth. Virtual reality has the power to transform how we experience games, and this team is at the forefront of that evolution. I believe their creativity, vision, and technical expertise will shape the future of gaming, and I’m excited to be part of their journey as they push the limits of what’s possible." “As an angel investor, I’m thrilled to support this innovative VR gaming venture that is redefining the boundaries of immersive entertainment. Manerai is at the forefront of VR gaming, and I am beyond excited to help them reach their next level of growth. Virtual reality has the power to transform how we experience games, and this team is at the forefront of that evolution. I believe their creativity, vision, and technical expertise will shape the future of gaming, and I’m excited to be part of their journey as they push the limits of what’s possible." “As an angel investor, I’m thrilled to support this innovative VR gaming venture that is redefining the boundaries of immersive entertainment. Manerai is at the forefront of VR gaming, and I am beyond excited to help them reach their next level of growth. Virtual reality has the power to transform how we experience games, and this team is at the forefront of that evolution. I believe their creativity, vision, and technical expertise will shape the future of gaming, and I’m excited to be part of their journey as they push the limits of what’s possible." As of 2023 , there are 65.9 million VR users in the U.S., with an estimated 171 million VR users worldwide. ManerAI aims to share skills and useful information with others operating in the VR gaming space and, as such, has several open-source libraries. 2023 Manerai added: “Our overall mission is not just to create a game, but a virtual community where players themselves can self-organize, create content, tasks, missions and goals. Our unique vision for VR games is to focus on comfort and fun, and to make all in-game mechanics behave as expected. We have a clear direction and know what we need to do to maximize the strength of the game organically, helped by the fact we are now actively accompanied by our advisors at New Folder Games, market leaders in VR games. We are incredibly grateful to Ryta for her interest and investment in the business; it will be crucial as we continue to expand our team, test new hypotheses and products, and increase player numbers.” “Our overall mission is not just to create a game, but a virtual community where players themselves can self-organize, create content, tasks, missions and goals. Our unique vision for VR games is to focus on comfort and fun, and to make all in-game mechanics behave as expected. We have a clear direction and know what we need to do to maximize the strength of the game organically, helped by the fact we are now actively accompanied by our advisors at New Folder Games, market leaders in VR games. We are incredibly grateful to Ryta for her interest and investment in the business; it will be crucial as we continue to expand our team, test new hypotheses and products, and increase player numbers.” “Our overall mission is not just to create a game, but a virtual community where players themselves can self-organize, create content, tasks, missions and goals. Our unique vision for VR games is to focus on comfort and fun, and to make all in-game mechanics behave as expected. We have a clear direction and know what we need to do to maximize the strength of the game organically, helped by the fact we are now actively accompanied by our advisors at New Folder Games, market leaders in VR games. We are incredibly grateful to Ryta for her interest and investment in the business; it will be crucial as we continue to expand our team, test new hypotheses and products, and increase player numbers.” The announcement follows Ryta’s investment in Teramot earlier this year. Teramot is a plug-and-play Data Engineering and Data Analytics tool that allows businesses to organize and take advantage of their information without a dedicated team in a week. Teramot

Ryta Zasiekina’s Angel Investment Provide Critical Capital for Manerai

Ryta Zasiekina’s Angel Investment ukax Manerai markatakix Capital Crítico ukaw churasi

La inversión ángel de Ryta Zasiekina aporta capital crucial para Manerai

O investimento Angel de Ryta Zasiekina proporciona capital crítico para Manerai

Ryta Zasiekina's Angel Investment-ը կարևոր կապիտալ է ապահովում Manerai-ի համար

Investasi Malaikat Ryta Zasiekina Menyediakan Modal Penting bagi Manerai

L’investimento angelico di Ryta Zasiekina fornisce capitale critico per Manerai

リタ・ザシエキナのエンジェル投資がマネライに重要な資本を提供

Ryta Zasiekina's Angel Investment Manerai үчүн маанилүү капиталды камсыз кылат

Ryta Zasiekina's Angel Investment manome renivola manan-danja ho an'i Manerai

Инвестициите на ангелите на Рита Засиекина обезбедуваат критичен капитал за Манераи

Ryta Zasiekina’s Angel Investment e Fana ka Motse-mošate wa Bohlokwa bakeng sa Manerai

Inwestycje aniołów Ryty Zasiekiny zapewniają kluczowy kapitał dla Manerai

A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . ON THE WATERS—A RAFT VOYAGE here CHAPTER XXIX - ON THE WATERS—A RAFT VOYAGE On the thirteenth of August we were up betimes. There was no time to be lost. We now had to inaugurate a new kind of locomotion, which would have the advantage of being rapid and not fatiguing. A mast, made of two pieces of wood fastened together, to give additional strength, a yard made from another one, the sail a linen sheet from our bed. We were fortunately in no want of cordage, and the whole on trial appeared solid and seaworthy. At six o'clock in the morning, when the eager and enthusiastic Professor gave the signal to embark, the victuals, the luggage, all our instruments, our weapons, and a goodly supply of sweet water, which we had collected from springs in the rocks, were placed on the raft. Hans had, with considerable ingenuity, contrived a rudder, which enabled him to guide the floating apparatus with ease. He took the tiller, as a matter of course. The worthy man was as good a sailor as he was a guide and duck hunter. I then let go the painter which held us to the shore, the sail was brought to the wind, and we made a rapid offing. Our sea voyage had at length commenced; and once more we were making for distant and unknown regions. Just as we were about to leave the little port where the raft had been constructed, my uncle, who was very strong as to geographic nomenclature, wanted to give it a name, and among others, suggested mine. "Well," said I, "before you decide I have another to propose." "Well; out with it." "I should like to call it Gretchen. Port Gretchen will sound very well on our future map." "Well then, Port Gretchen let it be," said the Professor. And thus it was that the memory of my dear girl was attached to our adventurous and memorable expedition. When we left the shore the wind was blowing from the northward and eastward. We went directly before the wind at a much greater speed than might have been expected from a raft. The dense layers of atmosphere at that depth had great propelling power and acted upon the sail with considerable force. At the end of an hour, my uncle, who had been taking careful observations, was enabled to judge of the rapidity with which we moved. It was far beyond anything seen in the upper world. "If," he said, "we continue to advance at our present rate, we shall have traveled at least thirty leagues in twenty-four hours. With a mere raft this is an almost incredible velocity." I certainly was surprised, and without making any reply went forward upon the raft. Already the northern shore was fading away on the edge of the horizon. The two shores appeared to separate more and more, leaving a wide and open space for our departure. Before me I could see nothing but the vast and apparently limitless sea—upon which we floated—the only living objects in sight. Huge and dark clouds cast their grey shadows below—shadows which seemed to crush that colorless and sullen water by their weight. Anything more suggestive of gloom and of regions of nether darkness I never beheld. Silvery rays of electric light, reflected here and there upon some small spots of water, brought up luminous sparkles in the long wake of our cumbrous bark. Presently we were wholly out of sight of land; not a vestige could be seen, nor any indication of where we were going. So still and motionless did we seem without any distant point to fix our eyes on that but for the phosphoric light at the wake of the raft I should have fancied that we were still and motionless. But I knew that we were advancing at a very rapid rate. About twelve o'clock in the day, vast collections of seaweed were discovered surrounding us on all sides. I was aware of the extraordinary vegetative power of these plants, which have been known to creep along the bottom of the great ocean, and stop the advance of large ships. But never were seaweeds ever seen, so gigantic and wonderful as those of the Central Sea. I could well imagine how, seen at a distance, tossing and heaving on the summit of the billows, the long lines of algae have been taken for living things, and thus have been fertile sources of the belief in sea serpents. Our raft swept past great specimens of fucus or seawrack, from three to four thousand feet in length, immense, incredibly long, looking like snakes that stretched out far beyond our horizon. It afforded me great amusement to gaze on their variegated ribbon-like endless lengths. Hour after hour passed without our coming to the termination of these floating weeds. If my astonishment increased, my patience was well-nigh exhausted. What natural force could possibly have produced such abnormal and extraordinary plants? What must have been the aspect of the globe, during the first centuries of its formation, when under the combined action of heat and humidity, the vegetable kingdom occupied its vast surface to the exclusion of everything else? These were considerations of never-ending interest for the geologist and the philosopher. All this while we were advancing on our journey; and at length night came; but as I had remarked the evening before, the luminous state of the atmosphere was in nothing diminished. Whatever was the cause, it was a phenomenon upon the duration of which we could calculate with certainty. As soon as our supper had been disposed of, and some little speculative conversation indulged in, I stretched myself at the foot of the mast, and presently went to sleep. Hans remained motionless at the tiller, allowing the raft to rise and fall on the waves. The wind being aft, and the sail square, all he had to do was to keep his oar in the centre. Ever since we had taken our departure from the newly named Port Gretchen, my worthy uncle had directed me to keep a regular log of our day's navigation, with instructions to put down even the most minute particulars, every interesting and curious phenomenon, the direction of the wind, our rate of sailing, the distance we went; in a word, every incident of our extraordinary voyage. From our log, therefore, I tell the story of our voyage on the Central Sea. Friday, August 14th. A steady breeze from the northwest. Raft progressing with extreme rapidity, and going perfectly straight. Coast still dimly visible about thirty leagues to leeward. Nothing to be seen beyond the horizon in front. The extraordinary intensity of the light neither increases nor diminishes. It is singularly stationary. The weather remarkably fine; that is to say, the clouds have ascended very high, and are light and fleecy, and surrounded by an atmosphere resembling silver in fusion. Thermometer, +32 degrees centigrade. About twelve o'clock in the day our guide Hans having prepared and baited a hook, cast his line into the subterranean waters. The bait he used was a small piece of meat, by means of which he concealed his hook. Anxious as I was, I was for a long time doomed to disappointment. Were these waters supplied with fish or not? That was the important question. No—was my decided answer. Then there came a sudden and rather hard tug. Hans coolly drew it in, and with it a fish, which struggled violently to escape. "A fish!" cried my uncle. "It is a sturgeon!" I cried, "certainly a small sturgeon." The Professor examined the fish carefully, noting every characteristic; and he did not coincide in my opinion. The fish had a flat head, round body, and the lower extremities covered with bony scales; its mouth was wholly without teeth, the pectoral fins, which were highly developed, sprouted direct from the body, which properly speaking had no tail. The animal certainly belonged to the order in which naturalists class the sturgeon, but it differed from that fish in many essential particulars. My uncle, after all, was not mistaken. After a long and patient examination, he said: "This fish, my dear boy, belongs to a family which has been extinct for ages, and of which no trace has ever been found on earth, except fossil remains in the Devonian strata." "You do not mean to say," I cried, "that we have captured a live specimen of a fish belonging to the primitive stock that existed before the deluge?" "We have," said the Professor, who all this time was continuing his observations, "and you may see by careful examination that these fossil fish have no identity with existing species. To hold in one's hand, therefore, a living specimen of the order, is enough to make a naturalist happy for life." "But," cried I, "to what family does it belong?" "To the order of Ganoides—an order of fish having angular scales, covered with bright enamel—forming one of the family of the Cephalaspides, of the genus—" "Well, sir," I remarked, as I noticed my uncle hesitated to conclude. "To the genus Pterychtis—yes, I am certain of it. Still, though I am confident of the correctness of my surmise, this fish offers to our notice a remarkable peculiarity, never known to exist in any other fish but those which are the natives of subterranean waters, wells, lakes, in caverns, and suchlike hidden pools." "And what may that be?" "It is blind." "Blind!" I cried, much surprised. "Not only blind," continued the Professor, "but absolutely without organs of sight." I now examined our discovery for myself. It was singular, to be sure, but it was really a fact. This, however, might be a solitary instance, I suggested. The hook was baited again and once more thrown into the water. This subterranean ocean must have been tolerably well supplied with fish, for in two hours we took a large number of Pterychtis, as well as other fish belonging to another supposed extinct family—the Dipterides (a genus of fish, furnished with two fins only, whence the name), though my uncle could not class it exactly. All, without exception, however, were blind. This unexpected capture enabled us to renew our stock of provisions in a very satisfactory way. We were now convinced that this subterranean sea contained only fish known to us as fossil specimens—and fish and reptiles alike were all the more perfect the farther back they dated their origin. We began to hope that we should find some of those saurians which science has succeeded in reconstructing from bits of bone or cartilage. I took up the telescope and carefully examined the horizon—looked over the whole sea; it was utterly and entirely deserted. Doubtless we were still too near the coast. After an examination of the ocean, I looked upward, towards the strange and mysterious sky. Why should not one of the birds reconstructed by the immortal Cuvier flap his stupendous wings aloft in the dull strata of subterranean air? It would, of course, find quite sufficient food from the fish in the sea. I gazed for some time upon the void above. It was as silent and as deserted as the shores we had but lately left. Nevertheless, though I could neither see nor discover anything, my imagination carried me away into wild hypotheses. I was in a kind of waking dream. I thought I saw on the surface of the water those enormous antediluvian turtles as big as floating islands. Upon those dull and somber shores passed a spectral row of the mammifers of early days, the great Liptotherium found in the cavernous hollow of the Brazilian hills, the Mesicotherium, a native of the glacial regions of Siberia. Farther on, the pachydermatous Lophrodon, that gigantic tapir, which concealed itself behind rocks, ready to do battle for its prey with the Anoplotherium, a singular animal partaking of the nature of the rhinoceros, the horse, the hippopotamus and the camel. There was the giant Mastodon, twisting and turning his horrid trunk, with which he crushed the rocks of the shore to powder, while the Megatherium—his back raised like a cat in a passion, his enormous claws stretched out, dug into the earth for food, at the same time that he awoke the sonorous echoes of the whole place with his terrible roar. Higher up still, the first monkey ever seen on the face of the globe clambered, gamboling and playing up the granite hills. Still farther away, ran the Pterodactyl, with the winged hand, gliding or rather sailing through the dense and compressed air like a huge bat. Above all, near the leaden granitic sky, were immense birds, more powerful than the cassowary and the ostrich, which spread their mighty wings and fluttered against the huge stone vault of the inland sea. I thought, such was the effect of my imagination, that I saw this whole tribe of antediluvian creatures. I carried myself back to far ages, long before man existed—when, in fact, the earth was in too imperfect a state for him to live upon it. My dream was of countless ages before the existence of man. The mammifers first disappeared, then the mighty birds, then the reptiles of the secondary period, presently the fish, the crustacea, the mollusks, and finally the vertebrata. The zoophytes of the period of transition in their turn sank into annihilation. The whole panorama of the world's life before the historic period, seemed to be born over again, and mine was the only human heart that beat in this unpeopled world! There were no more seasons; there were no more climates; the natural heat of the world increased unceasingly, and neutralized that of the great radiant Sun. Vegetation was exaggerated in an extraordinary manner. I passed like a shadow in the midst of brushwood as lofty as the giant trees of California, and trod underfoot the moist and humid soil, reeking with a rank and varied vegetation. I leaned against the huge column-like trunks of giant trees, to which those of Canada were as ferns. Whole ages passed, hundreds upon hundreds of years were concentrated into a single day. Next, unrolled before me like a panorama, came the great and wondrous series of terrestrial transformations. Plants disappeared; the granitic rocks lost all trace of solidity; the liquid state was suddenly substituted for that which had before existed. This was caused by intense heat acting on the organic matter of the earth. The waters flowed over the whole surface of the globe; they boiled; they were volatilized, or turned into vapor; a kind of steam cloud wrapped the whole earth, the globe itself becoming at last nothing but one huge sphere of gas, indescribable in color, between white heat and red, as big and as brilliant as the sun. In the very centre of this prodigious mass, fourteen hundred thousand times as large as our globe, I was whirled round in space, and brought into close conjunction with the planets. My body was subtilized, or rather became volatile, and commingled in a state of atomic vapor, with the prodigious clouds, which rushed forward like a mighty comet into infinite space! What an extraordinary dream! Where would it finally take me? My feverish hand began to write down the marvelous details—details more like the imaginings of a lunatic than anything sober and real. I had during this period of hallucination forgotten everything—the Professor, the guide, and the raft on which we were floating. My mind was in a state of semioblivion. "What is the matter, Harry?" said my uncle suddenly. My eyes, which were wide opened like those of a somnambulist, were fixed upon him, but I did not see him, nor could I clearly make out anything around me. "Take care, my boy," again cried my uncle, "you will fall into the sea." As he uttered these words, I felt myself seized on the other side by the firm hand of our devoted guide. Had it not been for the presence of mind of Hans, I must infallibly have fallen into the waves and been drowned. "Have you gone mad?" cried my uncle, shaking me on the other side. "What—what is the matter?" I said at last, coming to myself. "Are you ill, Henry?" continued the Professor in an anxious tone. "No—no; but I have had an extraordinary dream. It, however, has passed away. All now seems well," I added, looking around me with strangely puzzled eyes. "All right," said my uncle; "a beautiful breeze, a splendid sea. We are going along at a rapid rate, and if I am not out in my calculations we shall soon see land. I shall not be sorry to exchange the narrow limits of our raft for the mysterious strand of the subterranean ocean." As my uncle uttered these words, I rose and carefully scanned the horizon. But the line of water was still confounded with the lowering clouds that hung aloft, and in the distance appeared to touch the edge of the water. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (2006). A Journey to the Center of the Earth. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18857/18857-h/18857-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

ON THE WATERS—A RAFT VOYAGE

A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . LAUNCHING THE RAFT here CHAPTER XXVIII - LAUNCHING THE RAFT On the morning of the next day, to my great surprise, I awoke completely restored. I thought a bath would be delightful after my long illness and sufferings. So, soon after rising, I went and plunged into the waters of this new Mediterranean. The bath was cool, fresh and invigorating. I came back to breakfast with an excellent appetite. Hans, our worthy guide, thoroughly understood how to cook such eatables as we were able to provide; he had both fire and water at discretion, so that he was enabled slightly to vary the weary monotony of our ordinary repast. Our morning meal was like a capital English breakfast, with coffee by way of a windup. And never had this delicious beverage been so welcome and refreshing. My uncle had sufficient regard for my state of health not to interrupt me in the enjoyment of the meal, but he was evidently delighted when I had finished. "Now then," said he, "come with me. It is the height of the tide, and I am anxious to study its curious phenomena." "What!"' I cried, rising in astonishment, "did you say the tide, Uncle?" "Certainly I did." "You do not mean to say," I replied, in a tone of respectful doubt, "that the influence of the sun and moon is felt here below." "And pray why not? Are not all bodies influenced by the law of universal attraction? Why should this vast underground sea be exempt from the general law, the rule of the universe? Besides, there is nothing like that which is proved and demonstrated. Despite the great atmospheric pressure down here, you will notice that this inland sea rises and falls with as much regularity as the Atlantic itself." As my uncle spoke, we reached the sandy shore, and saw and heard the waves breaking monotonously on the beach. They were evidently rising. "This is truly the flood," I cried, looking at the water at my feet. "Yes, my excellent nephew," replied my uncle, rubbing his hands with the gusto of a philosopher, "and you see by these several streaks of foam that the tide rises at least ten or twelve feet." "It is indeed marvelous." "By no means," he responded; "on the contrary, it is quite natural." "It may appear so in your eyes, my dear uncle," was my reply, "but all the phenomena of the place appear to me to partake of the marvelous. It is almost impossible to believe that which I see. Who in his wildest dreams could have imagined that, beneath the crust of our earth, there could exist a real ocean, with ebbing and flowing tides, with its changes of winds, and even its storms! I for one should have laughed the suggestion to scorn." "But, Harry, my boy, why not?" inquired my uncle, with a pitying smile; "is there any physical reason in opposition to it?" "Well, if we give up the great theory of the central heat of the earth, I certainly can offer no reasons why anything should be looked upon as impossible." "Then you will own," he added, "that the system of Sir Humphry Davy is wholly justified by what we have seen?" "I allow that it is—and that point once granted, I certainly can see no reason for doubting the existence of seas and other wonders, even countries, in the interior of the globe." "That is so—but of course these varied countries are uninhabited?" "Well, I grant that it is more likely than not: still, I do not see why this sea should not have given shelter to some species of unknown fish." "Hitherto we have not discovered any, and the probabilities are rather against our ever doing so," observed the Professor. I was losing my skepticism in the presence of these wonders. "Well, I am determined to solve the question. It is my intention to try my luck with my fishing line and hook." "Certainly; make the experiment," said my uncle, pleased with my enthusiasm. "While we are about it, it will certainly be only proper to discover all the secrets of this extraordinary region." "But, after all, where are we now?" I asked; "all this time I have quite forgotten to ask you a question, which, doubtless, your philosophical instruments have long since answered." "Well," replied the Professor, "examining the situation from only one point of view, we are now distant three hundred and fifty leagues from Iceland." "So much?" was my exclamation. "I have gone over the matter several times, and am sure not to have made a mistake of five hundred yards," replied my uncle positively. "And as to the direction—are we still going to the southeast?" "Yes, with a western declination of nineteen degrees, forty-two minutes, just as it is above. As for the inclination I have discovered a very curious fact." [2] [3] The declination is the variation of the needle from the true meridian of a place. [2] Inclination is the dip of the magnetic needle with a tendency to incline towards the earth. [3] "What may that be, Uncle? Your information interests me." "Why, that the needle instead of dipping towards the pole as it does on earth, in the northern hemisphere, has an upward tendency." "This proves," I cried, "that the great point of magnetic attraction lies somewhere between the surface of the earth and the spot we have succeeded in reaching." "Exactly, my observant nephew," exclaimed my uncle, elated and delighted, "and it is quite probable that if we succeed in getting toward the polar regions—somewhere near the seventy-third degree of latitude, where Sir James Ross discovered the magnetic pole, we shall behold the needle point directly upward. We have therefore discovered by analogy, that this great centre of attraction is not situated at a very great depth." "Well," said I, rather surprised, "this discovery will astonish experimental philosophers. It was never suspected." "Science, great, mighty and in the end unerring," replied my uncle dogmatically, "science has fallen into many errors—errors which have been fortunate and useful rather than otherwise, for they have been the steppingstones to truth." After some further discussion, I turned to another matter. "Have you any idea of the depth we have reached?" "We are now," continued the Professor, "exactly thirty-five leagues—above a hundred miles—down into the interior of the earth." "So," said I, after measuring the distance on the map, "we are now beneath the Scottish Highlands, and have over our heads the lofty Grampian Hills." "You are quite right," said the Professor, laughing; "it sounds very alarming, the weight being heavy—but the vault which supports this vast mass of earth and rock is solid and safe; the mighty Architect of the Universe has constructed it of solid materials. Man, even in his highest flights of vivid and poetic imagination, never thought of such things! What are the finest arches of our bridges, what the vaulted roofs of our cathedrals, to that mighty dome above us, and beneath which floats an ocean with its storms and calms and tides!" "I admire it all as much as you can, Uncle, and have no fear that our granite sky will fall upon our heads. But now that we have discussed matters of science and discovery, what are your future intentions? Are you not thinking of getting back to the surface of our beautiful earth?" This was said more as a feeler than with any hope of success. "Go back, nephew," cried my uncle in a tone of alarm, "you are not surely thinking of anything so absurd or cowardly. No, my intention is to advance and continue our journey. We have as yet been singularly fortunate, and henceforth I hope we shall be more so." "But," said I, "how are we to cross yonder liquid plain?" "It is not my intention to leap into it head foremost, or even to swim across it, like Leander over the Hellespont. But as oceans are, after all, only great lakes, inasmuch as they are surrounded by land, so does it stand to reason, that this central sea is circumscribed by granite surroundings." "Doubtless," was my natural reply. "Well, then, do you not think that when once we reach the other end, we shall find some means of continuing our journey?" "Probably, but what extent do you allow to this internal ocean?" "Well, I should fancy it to extend about forty or fifty leagues—more or less." "But even supposing this approximation to be a correct one—what then?" I asked. "My dear boy, we have no time for further discussion. We shall embark tomorrow." I looked around with surprise and incredulity. I could see nothing in the shape of boat or vessel. "What!" I cried, "we are about to launch out upon an unknown sea; and where, if I may ask, is the vessel to carry us?" "Well, my dear boy, it will not be exactly what you would call a vessel. For the present we must be content with a good and solid raft." "A raft," I cried, incredulously, "but down here a raft is as impossible of construction as a vessel—and I am at a loss to imagine—" "My good Harry—if you were to listen instead of talking so much, you would hear," said my uncle, waxing a little impatient. "I should hear?" "Yes—certain knocks with the hammer, which Hans is now employing to make the raft. He has been at work for many hours." "Making a raft?" "Yes." "But where has he found trees suitable for such a construction?" "He found the trees all ready to his hand. Come, and you shall see our excellent guide at work." More and more amazed at what I heard and saw, I followed my uncle like one in a dream. After a walk of about a quarter of an hour, I saw Hans at work on the other side of the promontory which formed our natural port. A few minutes more and I was beside him. To my great surprise, on the sandy shore lay a half-finished raft. It was made from beams of a very peculiar wood, and a great number of limbs, joints, boughs, and pieces lay about, sufficient to have constructed a fleet of ships and boats. I turned to my uncle, silent with astonishment and awe. "Where did all this wood come from?" I cried; "what wood is it?" "Well, there is pinewood, fir, and the palms of the northern regions, mineralized by the action of the sea," he replied, sententiously. "Can it be possible?" "Yes," said the learned Professor, "what you see is called fossil wood." "But then," cried I, after reflecting for a moment, "like the lignites, it must be as hard and as heavy as iron, and therefore will certainly not float." "Sometimes that is the case. Many of these woods have become true anthracites, but others again, like those you see before you, have only undergone one phase of fossil transformation. But there is no proof like demonstration," added my uncle, picking one or two of these precious waifs and casting them into the sea. The piece of wood, after having disappeared for a moment, came to the surface, and floated about with the oscillation produced by wind and tide. "Are you convinced?" said my uncle, with a self-satisfied smile. "I am convinced," I cried, "that what I see is incredible." The fact was that my journey into the interior of the earth was rapidly changing all preconceived notions, and day by day preparing me for the marvelous. I should not have been surprised to have seen a fleet of native canoes afloat upon that silent sea. The very next evening, thanks to the industry and ability of Hans, the raft was finished. It was about ten feet long and five feet wide. The beams bound together with stout ropes, were solid and firm, and once launched by our united efforts, the improvised vessel floated tranquilly upon the waters of what the Professor had well named the Central Sea. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (2006). A Journey to the Center of the Earth. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18857/18857-h/18857-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

LAUNCHING THE RAFT

As part of my continuous learning journey, I recently picked up a Distributed Systems class from MIT that uses Golang in its labs. The course is great: all the lesson registrations and supporting materials are available online and are summarized in the . syllabus I especially liked the idea that I could learn something new about distributed systems, fine-tune my Golang skills, and build something cool by developing the take-home assignments at the same time. I wasn't disappointed. After taking upon a MapReduce simple implementation, I was ready to tackle the Raft implementation by following the design outlined in the . extended white paper Delving 1 Level Deeper Since I was implementing Raft from scratch, I had to build directly on top of the Go language itself without any recourse to external libraries or snippets of code. Of course, this means that I gained a pretty close relationship with basic building blocks such as and package. sync net/rpc Often, to really understand what I was doing, I needed to peek into the Go source code itself, an activity that I dismissed as "unnecessary" many times. One of the advantages of Go is that it's a small language: a beginner with a basic knowledge of its syntax can get pretty far before getting confused. On top of that, the standard packages of Go are really lovely and natively provide many of the goodies (networking, unit testing, logging) that other languages provide only through 3rd party packages. Hence, peeking in libraries like is not intimidating as it may seem because everything is built from a limited set of logical elements. sync Developing knowledge of what's happening 1 or 2 levels below my own code has given me a new level of confidence in what I was doing, especially when the documentation would mention some details just in passing and leave my imagination running wild over the possible low-level behavior of a certain library. Interestingly, I started to take a habit to explore and delve into totally different languages and codebases for the pleasure of discovery: in this way, I was able to tackle some bugs that previously looked pretty esoteric. Concurrency in Go 90% of my committed lines of code are written in Golang. It's easily my main language, used both at work and for leisure coding. However, the use I made of the language in a typical project usually revolves around: designing and implementing RPC APIs coding business logic defining suites of unit and integration tests extending some CLI utility tool The above activities are all nice and sweet, but it's undeniably a type of programming that sits at a pretty high level of abstraction, leaving many interesting tech problems at the doorstep. Implementing my own version of Raft allowed me to dive head-first into concurrency without restraints. I already knew about Goroutines, and I somewhat used them in the past, but never to the level I had to think too hard about them. Detecting candidates for concurrency it's not the difficult bit, as it's usually obvious that network operations and long-running background tasks deserve their own thread. The challenge is to correctly manage concurrent data access from the various goroutines and figure out how the different threads could be interwoven during the execution. Locking critical code sections is the job of the standard package. I choose some of the most basic - but effective - tools available: , and the built-in type . sync Mutex Cond chan was my main choice when protecting access to critical data, such as the Raft node's internal state. I adopted a very coarse granularity when locking code, releasing the lock only before initiating I/O operations or explicitly pausing the goroutine. Mutex It worked pretty well in order to avoid deadlocks and releasing resources for other threads even if, theoretically, some more performance could have been unlocked with a finer management of data access. was an interesting new finding: instead of waiting for a certain number of threads in a (that may or may not bring the system to a desired state), I could wait for every thread to report to the main process, and then immediately proceed if any of them returned the data I was waiting for. Cond WaitGroup Before learning about , I achieved the same goal by inserting additional checks and logic in each goroutine, which is functionally similar but harder to read and understand in my opinion. Cond Building From a White Paper Building directly from the white paper definitely felt different. There is great pleasure in going directly to the root source of knowledge, avoiding silly 10 minutes YT videos or bloated articles that keep beating around the bush without really going to the core concepts. Additionally, a white paper like the Raft one not only explains the high-level design but also goes on to explain why some features were designed in a certain way. Knowing the reason for things was really important to me, as it allowed me to make appropriate decisions while keeping some degree of freedom in taking whatever smart (or dumb) decision I felt like taking at any time. As an added nice bonus, Raft was purposefully designed to be an easy-to-understand consensus and coordination algorithm for distributed systems. While it's not necessarily used in production due to its sub-optimal performances, it deals with crucial concepts and challenges that all distributed systems face, providing a solid foundation that I later used to understand and interpret decisions made in other, more complex algorithms. This is very difficult to do by following a second-hand explanation of the algorithm: I really understood Raft only after reading the extended white paper AND implementing it by myself. Conclusion While challenging - and borderline bewildering at times, implementing Raft was an overall great experience that added many practical tools under my belt and improved my proficiency with Go. Yes - undergoing this project was challenging and time-consuming, even by following hints and re-reading documentation multiple times. Still, the final satisfaction of seeing all the tests pass is immense. Moreover, I feel that the new knowledge I acquired is already overflowing to other projects and even to work-related stuff, so the time I invested in this is already paying me back with interest.

The 3 Important Lessons I Learned From Implementing Raft in Go

THE RIFT

The Rise of Gen Z and the Sneaker Craze - Shoes on the Blockchain The global sneaker industry is set to grow to a value of 120$ billion by 2026 from a current market capitalization of $79 billion. The shoe business is an enormous opportunity given its rapid expansion across cultures and continents. However, with more companies targeting the already flooding sneaker market, the sneaker giants such as Nike and Adidas are eyeing the tokenization of sneakers as the next play, which will create a new digital market for sneakers altogether. For example, when a customer purchases a genuine pair of shoes, a digital version of the shoe may be created, connected to the customer, and given a cryptographic token, the digital shoe and cryptographic token being a crypto sneaker as a whole. Last year, collectors and sneakers enthusiasts bought and resold $6 billion of sneakers, including limited-edition pairs on the secondary market. Nike’s acquisition of RTFKT studio is a tell that the next step for the sneaker industry is to go into digital shoes, NFTs and accessories using blockchain technology. With companies like Sneakmart launching products such as Metakicks, which allows users to receive tokenized sneakers generated at random, the possibilities of using sneakers with blockchain technology is endless. NFT mystery boxes contain a random NFT from a collection. Buying a mystery box gives users the chance to receive a special or rare sneaker product at a relatively low price. Users want to show off their digital kicks, which they have created as they do in the physical world or resell it for a profit, exemplifying the new age of transformation. With celebrities endorsement such as soccer pairs created by former international soccer star Didier Drogba, the possibilities for collaboration are endless. The Rise of Sneakers NFTs Nike sees the acquisition of RTFKT as a way to extend its digital presence and its capabilities. Nike isn’t the only corporation jumping on the NFT bandwagon.  Adidas reaped nearly $22 million from the sale of the digital tokens, sold for 0.2 ETH each. A future where digital sneakers are an essential aspect of our identities is difficult to predict. With everyone from venture capital, private equity funds, banker, chipmakers to artists to fashion labels getting ready for the metaverse, it feels imminent—and businesses like Nike, Adidas, and others will be there to ensure our virtual feet aren’t bare. People ready to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a pair of digital shoes may soon make this a new normal and multi-billion dollar industry. It’s difficult to determine a future where digital sneakers will be a fundamental part of our identities. It seems inevitable with Nike, Adidas, RKFT, Sneakmart, Meta, fashion labels, and everyone else gearing up for the metaverse and its impact on our society. Catch all the breaking news, and Don’t forget to like the story.

Why Nike, Adidas, RKFT and Sneakmart are Tokenizing Sneakers

Insomniac Games and Sony PlayStation dropped a new gameplay trailer for the next installment of the Ratchet & Clank series, showcasing the new female Lombax character, who is the aptly named Rivet. The new sequel, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is due out later this summer. According to Insomniac, Rivet is a resistance fighter who resides in another dimension. In this alternate reality, Emperor Nefarious is in control and hunts all who oppose him. The new trailer includes some new locations, including Nefarious City, Sargasso and Torren IV, along with a new look at weapons and gameplay mechanics for the new title. Based on the trailer, she appears to be voiced by veteran voice-over star Jennifer Hale, who is likely best known to gamers for her work as Commander Shepard in Mass Effect and Dr. Naomi Hunter in the Metal Gear Solid series. Additionally, Insomniac Games Creative Director Marcus Smith confirmed on the that Mark Mothersbaugh, co-founder of the band DEVO, is serving as the composer for the Rift Apart music soundtrack. One of his songs is also featured in the trailer. PlayStation Blog Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Digital Deluxe Edition & New Trailer Insomniac has also revealed details for the Digital Deluxe Edition for the game, which is available for pre-order for $79.99 on the PlayStation Store. This includes the new Imperial, Scavenger, Android, Rebel and Hacker armor sets. Besides the five armor sets, players will get access to the full digital soundtrack, a digital art book, 20 Raritanium (in-game upgrade materials) and a Photo Mode Sticker pack. Also, this game will feature the first ever photo mode for Ratchet & Clank. Additionally, Insomniac confirmed that more footage and gameplay will be revealed on the PlayStation Twitch and YouTube channels on Thursday, April 29 at 2:00 pm PST / 5:00 pm EST. The session will feature over 15 minutes of new gameplay footage. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be available exclusively on PlayStation 5 consoles. It hits the shelves on June 11. Other News in Gaming: Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition is Free Until May 14 Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan Exits Blizzard Entertainment My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero Due Out for Spring Global Release, New Trailer

Latest Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart Gameplay Trailer Showcases Rivet, New Locations & Mechanics

Blockchain was billed as a solution to many of the problems that traditional technology faces when it comes to connecting various parties from one end of the world to another, and it has done pretty well at that. However, certain issues linger, and the RIFT protocol helps to get that out of the way. Scalability has been a problem for Blockchain Systems Today, blockchain has started to gain quite a lot of adoption. Several people have understood how it helps improve their lives and businesses beyond the traditional space, and have started to adopt it quite well. Blockchain is able to help with conducting transactions with much lower fees, increase transaction speed, and enhance the security of funds being moved. Adoption was slow, but it is undoubtedly starting to ramp up. However, the boost in adoption has led to a few issues as well; particularly, scalability. Scalability has so far been one major problem that every technology has. When you begin to onboard so many people, how do you grow to continue offering the same level of service that they’re used to, while also handling their load and ensuring that their experience is seamless? Solutions have so far been ineffective Blockchain hasn’t been immune to the scalability conundrum as well, and there have been several developers who have tried to proffer solutions to it. One of the most prominent solutions has been to increase the size of blocks, so that blocks and contain more transactions and accommodate more data. Sadly, increasing the block size will affect the speed of transactions, as it will take more time for these blocks to get filled up. Larger blocks are also worked on in more time. To be fair, there have been proposals for other solutions; these include distributing data between servers, or even storing the data off-chain. Regardless, any solution that gets proposed tends to compromise on one of two things; either the level of decentralization and freedom that blockchain users are able to achieve, or the general security of the platform. The problem of scalability has led to several differences in opinions, and pioneers have embarked on hard forks to bring their vision of the blockchain (as well as what they believe would have been the vision of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto) to life. Bitcoin Cash split from the original Bitcoin protocol years ago, and then also split to firm Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Version) and Bitcoin ABC. Ethereum also saw a hard form, with Ethereum Classic being created as a result of that process. Regardless, none of these forks has particularly led to any tangible solutions. The fact remains that increasing the block size will lead to slower transactions, and pioneers have been forced to deal with this problem since then. ILCoin and the RIFT protocol released RIFT protocol with the purpose of bringing an end to the scalability issue - through introducing an additional level of mini-blocks. ILCoin Blockchain Project It was able to prove the efficiency of the new protocol, after the project successfully released a stable block with a stunning 5GB size, as can be checked in the team’s Block Explorer (block ). While a lot of other blockchains usually have troubles with handling large blocks, also was able to bank on its innovative RIFT blockchain to help get the best of both worlds; an increase in the size of the blocks, as well as an enhancement to the speed of transactions that occur on-chain. #310280 With 5 Gb block size, 3 minute generation time and transaction weigh of 232 bytes, the current transaction speed of RIFT reaches 23 140 987 tx/block. RIFT helps keep scalability issue to the minimum, essentially meaning that chains can service as many people as possible without necessarily being overly weighed down. This makes for efficient data storage, and can go a long way in enhancing the adoption of blockchain technology as a whole. How the two-layer system works As opposed to the standard blocks, the mini blocks don’t get mined. They contain the transactions, but are generated by the system. This way, the network is able to get an incredible scalability potential. Mini blocks are connected to their parent blocks, and connected to each other through references. RIFT also comes with simultaneous asynchroization - essentially, a mechanism that synchronizes last blocks in the chain at the same time and allows to confirm transactions even if the sync is still in progress. This means that network congestion can be avoided, and scalability can be ensured. Basically, the blockchain component helps the ILCoin blockchain to handle massive load and onboard millions of people, while also ensuring that the speed that they have become accustomed to doesn’t experience any lags at all. So, to sum up, ILCoin and its RIFT protocol are on the fast track to cause a major disruption in the blockchain space. By merging large block sizes with the ability to conduct transactions faster, this project really is delivering the best of both worlds.

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