I'm using the wrong gaming console

[Kaido]

Souped-up Playstation anyone? :Q

Scientists unveiled the world's fastest supercomputer on Monday, a $100 million machine that for the first time has performed 1,000 trillion calculations per second in a sustained exercise.

"We took the basic chip design (of a PlayStation) and advanced its capability," said Turek.

In some ways, he said, it's "a very souped-up Sony PlayStation 3."

Turek said the computer in a two-hour test on May 25 achieved a "petaflop" speed of sustained performance, something no other computer had ever done

One petaflop is 1,000 trillion operations per second. Only two years ago, there were no actual applications where a computer achieved 100 teraflops -- a tenth of Roadrunner's speed -- said Turek, noting that the tenfold advancement came over a relatively short time.

 

[TallBill]

To bad they used dual core chips.

 

[RaiderJ]

So... can this one do hardware scaling

 

[Canai]

I wonder why they went with Opterons instead of Intel chips.

 

[Extelleron]

Originally posted by: Canai
I wonder why they went with Opterons instead of Intel chips.

Opterons scale better in 4P+ configurations and are faster than anything Intel has at the moment. Core 2's lead on the desktop does not translate into a lead in the server market.

 

[mugs]

I bet Firefox could still max out the CPU and memory.

 

[Mr Smiley]

The cost: $100 million.

Bill Gates will take 3.

 

[I4AT]

I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: I4AT
I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

I came in here hoping for a farm of 100,000 PS1 consoles.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: I4AT
I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

then what do you call a true supercomputer?

aren't they all just a farm of CPUs in the end?

 

[CasioTech]

why does it cost 100 million? bs

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: I4AT
I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

then what do you call a true supercomputer?

aren't they all just a farm of CPUs in the end?

A computer powerd by a super cpu I'd call a supercomputer

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: I4AT
I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

then what do you call a true supercomputer?

aren't they all just a farm of CPUs in the end?

A computer powerd by a super cpu I'd call a supercomputer

Then I think that would mean there are essentially zero supercomputers.

 

[I4AT]

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: I4AT
I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

then what do you call a true supercomputer?

aren't they all just a farm of CPUs in the end?

A computer powerd by a super cpu I'd call a supercomputer

Agreed, a supercomputer should have a super CPU, this should be a superserver if anything. When I hear the term supercomputer I think of something that's been engineered from the ground up, not just a collection of everyday processors. What's to stop somebody from going out and putting together more cells and quadcores and calling it the "new world's fastest supercomputer". You could have a new world's fastest machine every day of the week.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: I4AT
I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

then what do you call a true supercomputer?

aren't they all just a farm of CPUs in the end?

A computer powerd by a super cpu I'd call a supercomputer

You can't make a single CPU that much faster. Imagine the heat generation, and the amount of surface area you'd have to dissipate it. It's not going to happen with a "super CPU". A whole lot of normal CPUs, on the other hand, can be easily cooled.

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: I4AT
I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

then what do you call a true supercomputer?

aren't they all just a farm of CPUs in the end?

A computer powerd by a super cpu I'd call a supercomputer

You can't make a single CPU that much faster. Imagine the heat generation, and the amount of surface area you'd have to dissipate it. It's not going to happen with a "super CPU". A whole lot of normal CPUs, on the other hand, can be easily cooled.

And in order to make a "super cpu" you've have to increase the size of the die (or decrease the transistor size). It just isn't feasible on a manufacturing level. So, you HAVE to to increase the number of CPU's. There just isn't another option.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: mugs
I bet Firefox could still max out the CPU and memory.

That made me lol

 

[SAWYER]

4-d?

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: I4AT
I hate it when they call these things supercomputers. It's just a farm of 7,000 consumer dual core chips and 13,000 PS3 cells.

then what do you call a true supercomputer?

aren't they all just a farm of CPUs in the end?

A computer powerd by a super cpu I'd call a supercomputer

err, all current supercomputers are parallel. There is no way to make single chip do so much computation without vapourising itself.


yes, I know a few people have pointed it out. I just think it is worth repeating since this is ATOT and people skip posts.

 

[Vehemence]

There still wouldn't be any games on it. The Final Fantasy and MGS cut scenes would be even longer and purtier though