CSB-SUPERCOMPUTER

  BLOG ON SUPER-COMPUTER 

BY: CSB_BATCH-3_GROUP2

KARTIK KHILARE [56],PRERANA KOKANE[57],SANKALP KOKSE[58],SAKSHI KORHALE[59],AMEY KULKARNI [63]

 

 

A supercomputer is the fastest computer in the world that can process a significant amount of data very quickly. The computing Performance of a “supercomputer” is measured very high as compared to a general purpose computer. The computing Performance of a supercomputer is measured in FLOPS (that is floating-point operations per second) instead of MIPS. The supercomputer consists of tens of thousands of processors which can perform billions and trillions of calculations per second, or you can say that supercomputers can deliver up to nearly a hundred quadrillions of FLOPS.

They have evolved from grid to cluster system of massively parallel computing. Cluster system computing means that machine uses multiple processors in one system instead of arrays of separate computers in a network.

These computers are most massive concerning size. A most powerful supercomputer can occupy few feet to hundreds of feet. The supercomputer price is very high, and they can vary from 2 lakh dollar to over 100 million dollars.

Characteristics of Supercomputer

• They can support more than a hundred users at a time.

• These machines are capable of handling the massive amount of calculations that are beyond the human capabilities, i.e., the human is unable to solve such extensive calculations.

• Many individuals can access supercomputers at the same time.

• These are the most expensive computers that can ever be made.

Features of Supercomputer

• They have more than 1 CPU (Central Processing Unit) which contains instructions so that it can interpret instructions and execute arithmetic and logical operations.

• The supercomputer can support extremely high computation speed of CPUs.

• They can operate on pairs of lists of numbers instead of pairs of numbers.

• They were used initially in applications related to national security, nuclear weapon design, and cryptography. But nowadays they are also employed by the aerospace, automotive and petroleum industries.

Uses of Supercomputer

• Supercomputers are not used for everyday tasks because of their superiority.

• Supercomputer handles those applications, which required the real-time processing. The uses are as follows:

• They’re used for scientific simulations and research such as weather forecasting, meteorology, nuclear energy research, physics, and chemistry, as well as for extremely complex animated graphics. They are also used to interpret new diseases and predict illness behavior and treatment.

• The military uses supercomputers for testing new air crafts, tanks, and weapons. They also use them to understand the effect on soldiers and wars. These machines are also used for encrypting the data.

• Scientists use them to test the impact of nuclear weapon detonation.

• Hollywood uses supercomputers for the creation of animations.

• In entertainment, supercomputers are used for online gaming.

Supercomputers help in stabilizing the game performance when a lot of users are playing the game.

 KEY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM:

 

Mainframe Computers	Supercomputers
It is a large computer which is used as a large server and for intensive business applications.	It is an extremely fast compute capable of performing hundreds of millions of instructions per second.
Its components are: multiple input/output devices, magnetic disk, tape storage and many banks of internal storage.	A supercomputer usually includes more than one CPU.
Ex: IBM ES/9000	Ex: cray Supercomputer
It can typically run a variant of linux as an operating system.	It can run many types of operating system.
It can do millions of instructions per second.	It can do floating point operations per second.
It is used for bulk data processing like consumer statistics, ERP and financial transaction processing.	It is used for nuclear weapon development, weather forecasting, host processes for a local computer.

 

Historical development

Although early supercomputers were built by various companies, one individual, Seymour Cray, really defined the product almost from the start. Cray joined a computer company called Engineering Research Associates (ERA) in 1951. When ERA was taken over by Remington Rand, Inc. (which later merged with other companies to become Unisys Corporation), Cray left with ERA’s founder, William Norris, to start Control Data Corporation (CDC) in 1957. By that time Remington Rand’s UNIVAC line of computers and IBM had divided up most of the market for business computers, and, rather than challenge their extensive sales and support structures, CDC sought to capture the small but lucrative market for fast scientific computers. The Cray-designed CDC 1604 was one of the first computers to replace vacuum tubes with transistors and was quite popular in scientific laboratories. IBM responded by building its own scientific computer, the IBM 7030—commonly known as Stretch—in 1961. However, IBM, which had been slow to adopt the transistor, found few purchasers for its tube-transistor hybrid, regardless of its speed, and temporarily withdrew from the supercomputer field after a staggering loss, for the time, of $20 million. In 1964 Cray’s CDC 6600 replaced Stretch as the fastest computer on Earth; it could execute three million floating-point operations per second (FLOPS), and the term supercomputer was soon coined to describe it.

Special purpose supercomputers

A number of special-purpose systems have been designed, dedicated to a single problem. This allows the use of specially programmed FPGA chips or even custom ASICs, allowing better price/performance ratios by sacrificing generality. Examples of special-purpose supercomputers include Belle, Deep Blue,and Hydra for playing chess, Gravity Pipe for astrophysics,MDGRAPE-3 for protein structure prediction and molecular dynamics, and Deep Crack for breaking the DES cipher.

APPLICATIONS OF SUPERCOMPUTER:

1. The Super-Sized Problems :

The supercomputers owing to their capabilities can understand and foresee complex natural hazards. Understanding earthquakes is a very important aspect in preventing large scale loss of life. Researchers however have been successful to a great extent in predicting and estimating patterns of cyclones using supercomputers. All this possible due to all those high-level software which only supercomputers can handle.

2. In field of Biology :

Supercomputers have often been used to diagnose several diseases. Moreover, their main application is in studying the behavior of disease causing agents; only after which suitable vaccines and medicines can be prepared.

Also the research results produced by supercomputers have helped in understanding strokes, brain injuries and other blood flow issues to a greater extent.

3. In Military and Defense Operations :

With the increasing population, there is hardly any privilege to test weapons in the open. The other way around, supercomputers have even replaced the need for such outdoor stuff. Almost every defense in the world has one of these supercomputers which can simulate nuclear explosion and weapon ballistics.

4. In the air :

Supercomputers have revolutionized the way airplanes are designed. Thanks to the simulators (not yet so perfect) helping manufacturers understand the dynamics of air flow and build better and safer airplanes. Also the flight simulators are a real big deal, not just for training newbie pilots but also helping movies in being more realistic than ever.

5. Climate Predictions :

By far the most civilian supercomputer application is its capability to study and understand climate patterns. Actually this isn’t as easy as taking a look and into the sky and predicting stuff. It involves great deal of observation set because of the presence of hundreds of variables. The sure thing is breaking down all these complex variables and forecasting definitely needs the strength and abilities of a supercomputer.

COUNTRIES AND THEIR SUPERCOMPUTER:

1. China: 202 supercomputers – the biggest supercomputer is Sunway TahiuLight with a ranking of 93.01 petaflops

2. US: 143 supercomputers – the highest performing US supercomputer is Titan, with a ranking of 17.5 petaflops

3. Japan: 35 supercomputers – Japan’s biggest supercomputer, Gyokou, is at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

4. Germany: 20 supercomputers – the highest performing Germany supercomputer is HLRS, with a ranking of 5.6 petaflops

5. France: 18 supercomputers – France’s top supercomputer is owned by Total, one of the top seven oil and gas companies in the world