In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#1

Post by marklittlewood » Mon, May 31, 2010, 9:32 AM UTC

In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers
news.bbc.co.uk

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#2

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 31, 2010, 11:04 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#3

Post by Keyframe » Mon, May 31, 2010, 11:38 AM UTC

I just watched this the other day - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9kobkqAicU Cray-1 Supercomputer 30th Anniversary. I would give up my career and turn it around if given a chance to work in HPC.

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#4

Post by pretzel » Mon, May 31, 2010, 11:47 AM UTC

So where does Google fit in on that scale?

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#5

Post by scorchin » Mon, May 31, 2010, 11:53 AM UTC

I'm curious about the applications of these systems. Why is it that finance would be the third largest (known) group for supercomputer use? What kind of number crunching would they be doing?

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#6

Post by SandB0x » Mon, May 31, 2010, 11:58 AM UTC

scorchin wrote: post #5

I'm curious about the applications of these systems. Why is it that finance would be the third largest (known) group for supercomputer use? What kind of number crunching would they be doing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_novo_protein_structure_predi...

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#7

Post by iamcalledrob » Mon, May 31, 2010, 12:02 PM UTC

These kind of articles are why I really love the BBC.

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#8

Post by scorchin » Mon, May 31, 2010, 12:05 PM UTC

SandB0x wrote: post #6

scorchin wrote: post #5

I'm curious about the applications of these systems. Why is it that finance would be the third largest (known) group for supercomputer use? What kind of number crunching would they be doing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_novo_protein_structure_predi...

How does that relate to finance? I know that protein folding involves massive computation, as it was what our university cluster was being used for 40% of the time.

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#9

Post by portlandFan12 » Mon, May 31, 2010, 12:11 PM UTC

pretzel wrote: post #4

So where does Google fit in on that scale?

Google has a lot of computers, but they are not tightly coupled enough to be considered super computers.

Re: In Graphics: Supercomputing Superpowers

#10

Post by eagleal » Mon, May 31, 2010, 1:24 PM UTC

scorchin wrote: post #5

I'm curious about the applications of these systems. Why is it that finance would be the third largest (known) group for supercomputer use? What kind of number crunching would they be doing?

I can think only about trade forecasting, and natural resources management (like estimating oil exhaustion).