Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer • Hacker News Board

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#11

Post by azaras » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:24 PM UTC

__mp wrote: post #7

88e282102ae2e5b wrote: post #4

It kills me every time I read about how the world's nth-fastest computer is just used to simulate nuclear explosions, so it was a delight to see that they're planning on using this one for some good.

I have access to the 6th fastest super computer and I'm pretty sure that it is not used to simulate nuclear explosions.

What does it simulate?

Thanks.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#12

Post by apawloski » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:26 PM UTC

simi_ wrote: post #8

IMHO if you need to break down a task well enough to run on a supercomputer, there isn't a lot more to do to make it run on a regular server farm. edit: Actually, in the scenarios you'd use a supercomputer for, the added latency and overhead (shoddy servers, network, etc.) would most likely make the run time orders of magnitude higher.

Maybe for embarrassingly parallel tasks, but if you require nontrivial interprocess communication, a server farm can't compete with the interconnect of a modern supercomputer.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#13

Post by graphene » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:27 PM UTC

88e282102ae2e5b wrote: post #4

It kills me every time I read about how the world's nth-fastest computer is just used to simulate nuclear explosions, so it was a delight to see that they're planning on using this one for some good.

I don't know if this is what you're referring to, but a common application for government-owned supercomputers is simulating the degredation of nuclear warheads. The degradation of the fissile material as well as its surroundings is highly critical to a nation's security, and also very hard to model well.

Of course in an ideal world those cycles would be used to help cure cancer, but given that these warheads exist, it's probably a good idea to invest resources into getting an idea of what shape they're in.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#14

Post by davegardner » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:27 PM UTC

10 years ago the fastest supercomputer was BlueGene/L which was rated at 136.8 TFlop/s. The current fastest supercomputer is rated at 33,862.7 TFlop/s, or 247 times faster.

It seems to me that the aim of taking 10 years to build a supercomputer that is only 20 times faster than the current one might fall a little short if it's aiming to take the top spot.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#15

Post by bjacobel » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:28 PM UTC

> The supercomputer would be 20 times quicker than the current leading machine, which is in China.

So given Moore's Law, by the time it's finished in 2025, it will be 50 times slower than 2025's fastest?

Yes, yes, Moore's Law is slowing, transistors on a chip =/= flops, etc. Still seems like they'd want to aim higher than 20x in 10 years.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#16

Post by bjacobel » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:30 PM UTC

davegardner wrote: post #14

10 years ago the fastest supercomputer was BlueGene/L which was rated at 136.8 TFlop/s. The current fastest supercomputer is rated at 33,862.7 TFlop/s, or 247 times faster. It seems to me that the aim of taking 10 years to build a supercomputer that is only 20 times faster than the current one might fall a little short if it's aiming to take the top spot.

It could very well be that there's diminishing returns involved but I agree - they should be aiming to surpass the current tech by at last 100x in the next ten years.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#17

Post by scottcanoni » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:31 PM UTC

I wonder how many bitcoins can be mined with it :)

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#18

Post by jazzyk » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:33 PM UTC

sadgit wrote: post #5

Press: "What's it for?" Obama: "Uuuh... NASA."

I think he added an extra "A" there at the very last minute. :-)

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#19

Post by bbgm » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:36 PM UTC

bjacobel wrote: post #16

davegardner wrote: post #14

10 years ago the fastest supercomputer was BlueGene/L which was rated at 136.8 TFlop/s. The current fastest supercomputer is rated at 33,862.7 TFlop/s, or 247 times faster. It seems to me that the aim of taking 10 years to build a supercomputer that is only 20 times faster than the current one might fall a little short if it's aiming to take the top spot.

It could very well be that there's diminishing returns involved but I agree - they should be aiming to surpass the current tech by at last 100x in the next ten years.

The current trend [1] would suggest that exascale is not on that kind of trajectory. The dominance of non US countries (especially China) in the Top500 rankings is as much a driver here.

1. http://www.theplatform.net/2015/07/13/top-500-supercomputer-...

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#20

Post by angdis » Thu, Jul 30, 2015, 1:37 PM UTC

I suppose that "supercomputers" are all multi-processor these days, so the colossal FLOP numbers are counted as an aggregation over many processors and one has to coordinate these processors in any application that takes advantage of the FLOP specs.

Now I am curious what is the fastest single processor?