====== C.5 Supercomputers ====== [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.c_hwarch:start| Return to Hardware Architectures ]] ===== About ===== A **Supercomputer**(( Rouse, Margret; __Definition of supercomputer__, WhatIs.com, Accessed 8 December 2020, [[https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/supercomputer]] )) is a computer performing at or near the current highest operational rate for computers. Traditionally, supercomputers have been used for scientific and engineering applications: to handle very large databases, or to do a great amount of computation, or both. Although advances such as [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:m:multicore]] and [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:g:gpgpu]] have enabled powerful machines for personal use (see: [[https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/desktop-supercomputer-personal-supercomputer | desktop supercomputer]], [[https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/GPU-supercomputer | GPU supercomputer]]), by definition, a supercomputer is exceptional in terms of [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:p:performance|performance]]. According to Rouse(( Rouse, Margret; __Definition of supercomputer__, WhatIs.com, Accessed 8 December 2020, [[https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/supercomputer]] )), at any given time, there are a few well-publicized supercomputers that operate at extremely high speeds relative to all other computers. The term is also sometimes applied to far slower (but still impressively fast) computers. The largest, most powerful supercomputers are really multiple computers that perform [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:p:paraproc]]. In general, there are two parallel processing approaches: [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:s:smp]] and [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:m:mpp]]. Rouse(( Rouse, Margret; __Definition of supercomputer__, WhatIs.com, Accessed 8 December 2020, [[https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/supercomputer]] )) reports that as of June 2016, the fastest supercomputer in the world was the Sunway TaihuLight, in the city of Wixu in China. A few statistics on TaihuLight: * 40,960 [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:00-9:64bit|64-bit]], RISC processors with 260 cores each. * Peak performance of 125 petaflops (quadrillion floating point operations per second). * 32GB DDR3 memory per computer [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:n:node|node]], 1.3 PB memory in total. * Linux-based Sunway Raise [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.a_glossary:o:os]]. Some of the uses for supercomputers are(( Pappas, Stephanie; __9 Super-Cool Uses for Supercomputers__, livescience.com, 30 April 2010, Accessed 8 November 2020, [[https://www.livescience.com/6392-9-super-cool-supercomputers.html]] )): * Recreating the Big Bang * Understanding Earthquakes * Folding proteins * Mapping the blood stream * Modeling swine flu * Testing nuclear weapons * Forecasting hurricanes * Building Brains More recently, supercomputers have been used to model how the Coronavirus spreads.(( Kelleher, Suzanne Rowan; __Japanese Supercomputer Shows How Coronavirus Spreads In A Dining Setting__, Forbes, 19 October 2020, Accessed 8 December 2020, [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2020/10/19/viral-video-japanese-supercomputer-shows-how-coronavirus-spreads-in-a-dining-setting/?sh=57971027333f]] )) ===== DIDO Specifics ===== [[dido:public:ra:xapend:xapend.c_hwarch:super | Return to Top]] : To be added/expanded in future revisions of the DIDO RA /**=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- /* To add a discussion page to this page, comment out the line that says ~~DISCUSSION:off~~ */ ~~DISCUSSION:on|Outstanding Issues~~ ~~DISCUSSION:off~~