U.S. reclaims top spot in super-computer wars with machine that 'can do more in an hour than the world's population working non-stop for 320 years'
- IBM's 'Sequoia' beats Japan's 'K machine', running 1.55 times faster while being 15 per cent more energy efficient
- Computer - which is nearly 300,00 times faster than machines from 20 years ago - will be used for nuclear studies
In the super-computing league table, the U.S. has reclaimed 'top spot' from China.
IBM's Sequoia computer, which is 1.55 times faster than China's previous record-breaker, the Fujitsu K Computer, was installed and switched on at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
Throwing evidence behind Moore's Law - which dictates that computers get twice as powerful and twice as small every 18 months - the new super-computer is a powerful machine.
It can perform - in less than a second - calculations which would take the super computers of 1993 three days to solve.
In fact, the IBM team say it is 273,930 times more powerful than the 1993 machine - called the CM-5/1024 and created by American firm Thinking Machines.
The Sequoia: This grey slab is just part the most powerful computer on the planet, and will be used in nuclear power research, with perhaps a game or two of chess on the side
The BBC reports that Sequoia is capable of calculating, in one hour, 'what otherwise would take 6.7 billion people using hand calculators 320 years.'
The computer will be used carry out simulations to help extend the life of nuclear weapons, in a bid to avoid real-world underground tests
Sequoia and uses over 1.5 million processors - to put that in perspective, your brand-new, luxurious £3,000 desktop PC will like be a quad-core, e.g. with four processors.
Gamers and computer enthusiasts all over the world will be very tempted to install some modern computer games like the first-person shooter Crysis onto Sequoia to watch the hardware destroy all previous hardware benchmarks.
National Nuclear Security Administration administrator Thomas D'Agostino said: 'While Sequoia may be the fastest, the underlying computing capabilities it provides give us increased confidence in the nation's nuclear deterrent.
THE SPECIAL K
Japan's 'No 2' computer is certainly nothing to be sneered at.
It packs 88,128 2.0 GHz 8-core processors (spread over 864 separate cabinets).
To put that in perspective, this is nearly 90,000 very-high-end home computers, all strung up together to work in sync.
That creates around 705,000 processors in total, less than half of Sequoia's 1.5million, but still a mighty beast in its own right.
It runs on Linux, the open-source and free alternative to Windows which means, if nothing else, Fujitsu got to save some money on the software side.
'Sequoia also represents continued American leadership in high performance computing.'
It is also the machine with relatively outstanding economy power-wise, consuming 7.9 megawatts compared to the K computer, which consumes12.6 megawatts.
Other countries with supercomputers include China and Japan, with two apiece, and and Japan, France and Italy each have one.
IBM has built five out of the top 10 computers.
David Turek, vice president of deep computing at the firm, told the BBC: 'Substantial planning went into this. We knew the day would come.'
Not everyone was left excited by the new machine: ZDNet's Zack Whittaker said: 'The U.S. may claim home to some the world's top scientists, just as China has for two non-consecutive years claimed the world's fastest computer. ... At the end of the day: supercomputers are just tools.'
However, in reply, another ZNET writer, Dan Kusnetzky, said: 'On the other hand, IBM or any other supplier's ability to create such a complex, powerful computing research is of extreme importance.
'The thought, the tools and the procedures needed to build and operate such a huge system are directly applicable to other types of computing.'
It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.
Best Jokes and Great Masti: DesiMasala-Subscribe@YahooGroups.Com
Cosmopolitan Showtime: Chumma-Subscribe@YahooGroups.Com
Hindi Shayris and Ghazals: Shayris-Subscribe@YahooGroups.Com
------------------------------------
(*: THE CHUMMA LIST :*)
------------------------------------
Group Email Addresses
Post message: Chumma@YahooGroups.Com
Moderators: Hiten@HitenRaja.com & TejasMehta@aol.com
To modify your list subscription, please send a blank email to:
SUBSCRIBE: Chumma-Subscribe@YahooGroups.Com
UNSUBSCRIBE: Chumma-Unsubscribe@YahooGroups.Com
INDIVIDUAL MAILS: Chumma-Normal@YahooGroups.Com
DAILY DIGEST: Chumma-Digest@YahooGroups.Com
VACATION HOLD: Chumma-Nomail@YahooGroups.Com
All of you are encouraged to submit your favorite attachments to the list! You are requested to properly format your contribution, use a unique subject line, and avoid virus warnings, chain letters, commercial messages, disclaimers etc. The better you follow the guidelines, and the original or fresher you are, the higher are the chances of your funnies getting posted!
You will be banned from the group if you spam or flame fellow members, ignore posting guidelines routinely, send out auto replies, or post advertisements.
Fun URLs (May require a login with Yahoo ID)
Homepage: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chumma
Cosmopolitan Showtime: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chumma
Mail Delivery: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chumma/join
Polls: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chumma/polls
Subscribe Box: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chumma/promote
Indian Jokes: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DesiMasala
Romantic Shayris: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shayris
--
ALWAYS KEEP SMILING
ALWAYS KEEP_MAILING
Just click here
M.YUSUF
COONOOR
THE NILGIRIS
--
To post to this group, send email to keep_mailing@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment