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Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#31

Post by melling »

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.

And it kills me every time someone makes a silly comment like this. Someone has to spend the large amount of money for the R&D. Your model of how the world works is flawed.

We went to the moon because of the Cold War. The military paid for the development of the Internet. GPS? Supersonic flight? Nuclear energy? Autonomous vehicles?

I wish private industry would do more. Every company should have a Bell Labs.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#32

Post by ssully »

azaras wrote: post #11
__mp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Argonne National Labs, which is 5th fastest I think, is used for weather models, material science, and more[1]

[1]http://www.alcf.anl.gov/

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#33

Post by jerven »

azaras wrote: post #11
__mp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That should be Piz Daint at CSCS, so Super conductor behavior, weather and many other things.

Mostly non embarrassingly parallel problems, where its high speed interconnect pays off.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#34

Post by flyingfsck »

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 work in this field. The short of it is: there is more money out there for PIs to get defense related grants vs cure for cancer type grants. Some of it is for good, e.g. modeling where to dispatch mobile hospitals for the Ebola outbreak. Modeling the world's population doing things like fleeing a dirty bomb takes an astonishing amount of compute if you want answers in a timely fashion.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#35

Post by edpichler »

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.

I think this do not advanced more just because of economic reasons.

I have have read last 10 years that Processing is a lot more cheaper did by network of computers and clusters, instead of a expensive supercomputer that also demands an appropriate building and infrastructure.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#36

Post by dekhn »

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.

This is not remotely true for a wide range of codes that matter to the supercomputing industry.

Re: Supercomputers: Obama orders world's fastest computer

#38

Post by danharaj »

melling wrote: post #31
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.

And it kills me every time someone makes a silly comment like this. Someone has to spend the large amount of money for the R&D. Your model of how the world works is flawed. We went to the moon because of the Cold War. The military paid for the development of the Internet. GPS? Supersonic flight? Nuclear energy? Autonomous vehicles? I wish private industry would do more. Every company should have a Bell Labs.

Are you extolling the virtues of a world that was shaped by the threat of nuclear annihilation for multiple generations?
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