Fastest Computer Spawns High-Tech Race

[Adul]

Got to love super computers<a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://apnews.excite.com/article/20021217/D7NVBOC80.html" target=blank>
Link</A>

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<FONT face=Verdana,Sans-serif><FONT color=black size=2>YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) - It's a machine so fast it performs more computations per second than there are stars in our galaxy. It's so large it's housed in a building the size of an aircraft hangar.</FONT></FONT>
<FONT face=Verdana,Sans-serif><FONT color=black size=2>Running 35.6 trillion calculations per second, the Earth Simulator is the fastest supercomputer in the world, almost five times faster than the next best one and as fast as the top 5 U.S. supercomputers combined.</FONT></FONT>
<FONT face=Verdana,Sans-serif><FONT color=black size=2>For the Japanese scientists using the $350 million computer, it means climate research, with its complex simulations and diverse mix of variables, is more accurate than ever before.</FONT></FONT>

 

[Dulanic]

Thirty-five million cubic feet of air roar through the building every 10 seconds to keep the monster from overheating.

:Q Holy crap

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: Dulanic

Thirty-five million cubic feet of air roar through the building every 10 seconds to keep the monster from overheating.

:Q Holy crap

I thought my box was too loud.



Well, what brings competition is always great. So when can we start seeing the desktop versions of these? 10, 15 years from now?

 

Built by the Tokyo-based NEC Corp. (NIPNY), the computer can already predict the path of a typhoon or a volcanic eruption with remarkable precision.

I find this statement extremely hard to believe.

 

[Goosemaster]

Operator: So HAL, what will the weather be like to today?

HAL:: It will be windy in Chicago, it will rain in Northern Brazil, and Stalingrad will be cold.

Operator: You suck, HAL! There is no way I'm paying millions for a piece of junk. I'm returning you tommorow!

HAL: I'm affraid I can't let you do that Bob.

 

[Adul]

lol goosemaster

 

[BentValve]

Originally posted by: Roger

Built by the Tokyo-based NEC Corp. (NIPNY), the computer can already predict the path of a typhoon or a volcanic eruption with remarkable precision.

I find this statement extremely hard to believe.

That is insanity! lol Can it predict a persons date of death as well?

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: BentValve

Originally posted by: Roger

Built by the Tokyo-based NEC Corp. (NIPNY), the computer can already predict the path of a typhoon or a volcanic eruption with remarkable precision.

I find this statement extremely hard to believe.

That is insanity! lol Can it predict a persons date of death as well?

heh how about one to predict what a women thinks

 

[Eug]

Some perspective:

My laptop has a theoretical peak speed of about 7.5 Gigaflops. In 1990, a fast supercomputer was in the 1 Gigaflop range sustained.

That computer you linked is about 36 Teraflops, ie. 35000X the speed of a supercomputer in 1988, and almost 5000X the peak speed of my laptop.

Also:

1985 Cray X-MP

Cost:$8,000,000
60,000 watts of power
No Built in Graphics

1997 Nintendo 64

Cost: $149
5 watts of power
Interactive 3D Graphics

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: Adul

Originally posted by: BentValve

Originally posted by: Roger

Built by the Tokyo-based NEC Corp. (NIPNY), the computer can already predict the path of a typhoon or a volcanic eruption with remarkable precision.

I find this statement extremely hard to believe.

That is insanity! lol Can it predict a persons date of death as well?

heh how about one to predict what a women thinks

That would fry any computer

 

Woman don't think, they feel

 

[sharkeeper]

That is insanity! lol Can it predict a persons date of death as well?

Already done!

Cheers!

 

[WannaZO6]

heh how about one to predict what a women thinks

Impossible, as soon as the computer predicted what women think, it would have to start over again because it changed completely.

 

[Random Variable]

My laptop has a theoretical peak speed of about 7.5 Gigaflops.

Each of the 5,120 vector processors in the "Earth Simulator" are capable of 8 GFlops (not exactly spectacular floating-pont performace). But the people at NEC have the brains to realize that clustering is not the way to go when designing a supercomputer. Clusters lack memory bandwidth and thusly do a poor job at actualizing theoretical floating-point performance.

 

[Darien]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Operator: So HAL, what will the weather be like to today?

HAL:: It will be windy in Chicago, it will rain in Northern Brazil, and Stalingrad will be cold.

Operator: You suck, HAL! There is no way I'm paying millions for a piece of junk. I'm returning you tommorow!

HAL: I'm affraid I can't let you do that Bob.

ROTFLOL! That's a good one

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: Vespasian

My laptop has a theoretical peak speed of about 7.5 Gigaflops.

Each of the 5,120 vector processors in the "Earth Simulator" are capable of 8 GFlops (not exactly spectacular floating-pont performace). But the people at NEC have the brains to realize that clustering is not the way to go when designing a supercomputer. Clusters lack memory bandwidth and thusly do a poor job at actualizing theoretical floating-point performance.

so the question begs, how will the 100 TF and 360 TF Super comps IBM will be building be

 

[Random Variable]

Originally posted by: Adul

Originally posted by: Vespasian

My laptop has a theoretical peak speed of about 7.5 Gigaflops.

Each of the 5,120 vector processors in the "Earth Simulator" are capable of 8 GFlops (not exactly spectacular floating-pont performace). But the people at NEC have the brains to realize that clustering is not the way to go when designing a supercomputer. Clusters lack memory bandwidth and thusly do a poor job at actualizing theoretical floating-point performance.

so the question begs, how will the 100 TF and 360 TF Super comps IBM will be building be

ASCI Purple (100 TFlops) will be a monstrous cluster of Power5 servers. But the other one (Blue Gene/L) will be shared-memory system that has something like 65,000 low-watt embedded processors.

EDIT: Make that 130,000 low-watt embedded processors.