The most powerful computers in the world are called supercomputers. If you have some knowledge about computers, you will have heard the term supercomputer before. But it is natural to raise the question that where supercomputers are different from the personal computers or PCs that we use in daily work. Why are they so much more powerful than ordinary computers?
In today’s post, we will learn what supercomputers are, how they work and how much faster they can work than normal computers. You will also get the introduction of the world’s most powerful computers in this post.
What is a supercomputer?
Like normal computers, supercomputers store and process data. But it does it at such a fast speed which is beyond your imagination. A typical computer usually has a processing unit. Common tasks are done through this processing unit. However, supercomputers have numerous processing units that can perform any task millions of times faster than a PC.
How fast a supercomputer works is measured in flops. The higher the FLOPS or Floating Point Operations Per Second, the faster the computer can work.
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Why are supercomputers created?
Supercomputers are built for specific tasks. Because these tasks require very fast speed, the tasks are done through supercomputers. Tasks for which supercomputers are used:
Weather forecasting: By processing billions of weather data together at high speed, it is possible to get the most accurate weather forecast possible. And supercomputers are best suited for this task. The more data that can be processed, the faster and more accurate predictions can be made.
To run simulations: Supercomputers are used to create and run various types of simulations. For example, in learning pilots try to fly the plane through simulation before flying the real plane. This makes it possible to do everything like a real plane. In the case of simulation, a lot of data has to be processed simultaneously in real time, so supercomputers are very useful.
Scientific Research: Scientific research is often conducted by processing large amounts of data simultaneously. By doing this, results are obtained quickly and many calculations can be done at once.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a supercomputer?
A supercomputer is a high-performance computing system that is designed to handle very large and complex computational tasks. Supercomputers are typically used for scientific research, weather forecasting, modeling complex systems, and other applications that require massive amounts of processing power.
How is the power of a supercomputer measured?
The power of a supercomputer is typically measured using the Linpack benchmark, which is a standard measure of a computer’s floating-point computing power. The Linpack benchmark calculates how quickly a computer can solve a dense system of linear equations.
Who builds supercomputers?
Supercomputers are built by a variety of companies and organizations, including major technology companies like IBM and Fujitsu, as well as national research laboratories and universities.
What are some of the applications of supercomputers?
Supercomputers are used for a wide variety of applications, including scientific research, weather forecasting, modeling complex systems, simulating nuclear explosions, and many others. They are particularly useful for applications that require massive amounts of data processing and number crunching.
How much do supercomputers cost?
Supercomputers can cost anywhere from a few million dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on their size, power, and capabilities. Some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world can cost upwards of $100 million to build and operate.
Supercomputers are also used for various other purposes.
Some of the most powerful computers in the world
Now we will know about some of the most powerful computers in the world whose power can beat your imagination.
Frontier (United States)
The famous American technology company HP made this super computer in 2022 which is known as the most powerful computer in the world. It can perform 1 quantillion (10^18) calculations per second which is beyond imagination. No other supercomputer in the world has this capability. It has a total of 8,730,112 cores. The entire computer weighs close to 3.63 tons and cost more than $600 million to build! You can check the details about it from the HP website.
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Fugaku (Japan)
It was developed in 2020 by Fujitsu, a famous Japanese technology company. It was created with the aim of finding solutions to the world’s most complex problems. Before Frontier, Fugaku was the world’s fastest computer. It has 7,630,848 cores capable of performing 442 quadrillion calculations per second.
It is also recognized as the most power efficient computer in the world. This 700 ton supercomputer cost 1 billion US dollars to build. You can find all the details about Fugaku on Fujitsu’s official website.
Lumi (Finland)
Lumi is known as the most powerful computer in Europe. It is also made by the famous technology company HP in 2022. There are 1,110,144 cores and their clock speed is 151.9 pflops. Its basic design is also similar to the Frontier as it is manufactured by the same company. Like the Frontier, it is also power efficient, said to be the second most power efficient computer in the world. You can know more details about this super computer from the official website.
Summit (United States)
In 2018, the American technology company IBM created this supercomputer for scientific research. Its location is at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with Frontier. It has a total of 2,414,592 cores with a clock speed of 148.6 pflops. It is powered by IBM’s 22-core 3.07 GHz CPU. You can check the details from here.
Sierra (United States)
Along with the Summit supercomputer, IBM launched the Sierra supercomputer in 2018. This supercomputer was originally developed for work related to America’s nuclear security system. It has 1,572,480 cores and a performance of 94.64 pflops. You can find details of Sierra on this website.
Sunway Tyhulite (China)
In 2016, China developed its own supercomputer for various purposes. Their supercomputer has a total of 10,649,600 CPU cores capable of working at a speed of 93.01 pflops. It is powered by their own 260 core 1.45 GHz processor. However, China does not reveal much about this supercomputer for security reasons.
Perlmutter (USA)
In 2021, the US developed this supercomputer in collaboration with HP. It is also designed for use in a variety of applications. It is currently housed at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. AMD’s 64-core 2.45 GHz processor is used here. There are a total of 761,856 cores capable of working at a speed of 70.87 pflops. Get details about it on this website.
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Celine (USA)
In 2020, the famous technology company Nvidia made this super computer. This supercomputer was used to research the antidote to the corona virus. It has a total of 555,520 cores that can work at a speed of 63.46 pflops. This super computer is made with 64 core 2.25 GHz processor. You can find out more from Nvidia’s website.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, the most powerful computers in the world were Fugaku, Summit, Sierra, Sunway TaihuLight, and Tianhe-2A. These supercomputers are used for a variety of tasks, including scientific research, weather forecasting, and modeling complex systems. However, as technology continues to advance, it’s likely that new supercomputers will be developed with even greater power and capabilities. the most powerful computers in the world.
