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Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:00:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Sally Khudairi <sk@apache.org>
Reply-To: sk@apache.org
Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Apache Innovation Bolsters IBM's "Smartest Machine on
 Earth" in First-ever Man vs. Machine Competition on Jeopardy! Quiz Show
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Apache UIMA and Apache Hadoop Advance Data Intelligence and Semantics Capab=
ilities of Watson Supercomputer=0A=0AForest Hill, MD =E2=80=93 14 February =
2011 =E2=80=93 The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer deve=
lopers, stewards, and incubators of nearly 150 Open Source projects and ini=
tiatives, today announced that Apache UIMA and Apache Hadoop play key roles=
 in the data intelligence and analytic proficiency of the IBM Watson superc=
omputer, playing against human champions on the TV show "Jeopardy!".=0A=0AP=
rocessing 80 trillion operations (teraflops) per second, Watson will access=
 200 million pages of content against 6 million logic rules to "understand"=
 the nuances, meanings, and patterns in spoken human language, and compete =
in the trivia game show Jeopardy!. Contestants are presented with clues in =
the form of answers, and must phrase their responses as questions within a =
5-second timeframe. =0A=0AHundreds of Apache UIMA Annotators and thousands =
of algorithms help Watson =E2=80=93which runs disconnected from the Interne=
t=E2=80=93 access vast databases to simultaneously comprehend clues and for=
mulate answers. Watson then analyzes 500 gigabytes of preprocessed informat=
ion to match potential meanings for the question and a potential answer to =
the question. Helping Watson do this is:=0A=0AApache UIMA: standards-based =
frameworks, infrastructure and components that facilitate the analysis and =
annotation of an array of unstructured content (such as text, audio and vid=
eo). Watson uses Apache UIMA for real-time content analytics and natural la=
nguage processing, to comprehend clues, find possible answers, gather suppo=
rting evidence, score each answer, compute its confidence in each answer, a=
nd improve contextual understanding (machine learning) =E2=80=93 all under =
3 seconds.=0A=0AApache Hadoop: software framework that enables data-intensi=
ve distributed applications to work with thousands of nodes and petabytes o=
f data. A foundation of Cloud computing, Apache Hadoop enables Watson to ac=
cess, sort, and process data in a massively parallel system (90+ server clu=
ster/2,880 processor cores/16 terabytes of RAM/4 terabytes of disk storage)=
.=0A=0AThe Watson system uses UIMA as its principal infrastructure for comp=
onent interoperability and makes extensive use of the UIMA-AS scale-out cap=
abilities that can exploit modern, highly parallel hardware architectures. =
UIMA manages all work flow and communication between processes, which are s=
pread across the cluster. Apache Hadoop manages the task of preprocessing W=
atson's enormous information sources by deploying UIMA pipelines as Hadoop =
mappers, running UIMA analytics.=0A=0A"The success and influence of Watson =
clearly shows that open source in general, and specifically open source sof=
tware developed and released by the ASF, is deeply entwined in all layers a=
nd aspects of technology," said ASF President Jim Jagielski. "Apache softwa=
re is part of computing and information technology DNA, forming complete or=
 integral solutions to advanced problems, and leveraging the software under=
 the non-restrictive Apache License allows for extremely rapid development =
of cutting edge technology."=0A=0AWatson faces off against record-breaking =
(human) Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter for the $1M grand p=
rize 14-16 February 2011. 100% of Watson's winnings will be donated to char=
ity; Rutter and Jennings have committed to donating 50% of their prizes.=0A=
=0A=0AAvailability=0AAll ASF products, including Apache UIMA and Apache Had=
oop, are available to the public free of charge under the Apache Software L=
icence v2.0. Downloads, documentation, and related resources are available =
at http://www.apache.org/.=0A=0A=0AAbout The Apache Software Foundation (AS=
F)=0AEstablished in 1999, the all-volunteer Foundation oversees nearly one =
hundred fifty leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server =
=E2=80=94 the world's most popular Web server software. Through the ASF's m=
eritocratic process known as "The Apache Way," more than 300 individual Mem=
bers and 2,500 Committers successfully collaborate to develop freely availa=
ble enterprise-grade software, benefiting millions of users worldwide: thou=
sands of software solutions are distributed under the Apache License; and t=
he community actively participates in ASF mailing lists, mentoring initiati=
ves, and ApacheCon, the Foundation's official user conference, trainings, a=
nd expo. The ASF is a US 501(3)(c) not-for-profit charity, funded by indivi=
dual donations and corporate sponsors including AMD, Basis Technology, Clou=
dera, Facebook, Google, IBM, HP, Matt Mullenweg, Microsoft, SpringSource, a=
nd Yahoo!. For more information, visit http://www.apache.org/.=0A=0A# # #=
=0A=0AContact:=0A=0ASally Khudairi=0AThe Apache Software Foundation=0Apress=
@apache.org=0A+1 617 921 8656=0A=0A=0A =0A_________________________________=
___________________________________________________=0AIt's here! Your new m=
essage!  =0AGet new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar.=0Ahttp://too=
ls.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/

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