The agency isn't alone in its work: Intel, Qualcomm and Northrop Grumman are involved, as are researchers at Georgia Tech and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

It's going to take a long time before you see a HIVE chip in service -- DARPA and its allies are effectively reinventing the wheel. If the concept works as promised, though, it could quickly spot problems before they become especially dire. The military could catch the first signs of a cyberattack, while disease control experts could detect an imminent outbreak. Simply speaking, massive amounts of data shouldn't be quite so intimidating -- you could just ask a computer to connect the dots.