New Supercomputer Accomplishes What Other Supercomputers Can't

[kyrathaba]

...The machine, which was completed more than a year ago, stakes its claim to fame on its ability to perform lengthy simulations that aren't possible on current supercomputers. The new results mark the first significant test of Anton's prowess...

[mwb1100]

I haven't read the article, but that thing sure looks cool...

[kyrathaba]

It sort of reminds me of the computer "Ira" from the old Wonder Woman series.

[Renegade]

It sort of reminds me of the computer "Ira" from the old Wonder Woman series.

-kyrathaba (October 18, 2010, 06:47 PM)

Hahahaha~! Yeah, it does!

[f0dder]

Blahblahblah, but no specs

[40hz]

Blahblahblah, but no specs

-f0dder (October 22, 2010, 02:26 PM)

Some specs can be found here.

It's a 512-node ASIC powered array set up for massively parallel (albeit specialized) computation.

"Metal" doesn't get much heavier than this puppy! 

[MilesAhead]

Yet another one of those black gadgets with black controls.  They must be in braille.  It's not really as fast as they say.  But by the time you find the switch to get the result, it's ready with an answer.

[f0dder]

Blahblahblah, but no specs

-f0dder (October 22, 2010, 02:26 PM)

Some specs can be found here.

It's a 512-node ASIC powered array set up for massively parallel (albeit specialized) computation.

-40hz (October 22, 2010, 02:45 PM)

Thanks for the link - suspected wiki would have a link, but I got lazy ;P. This actually seems like an interesting supercomputer; yeahyeah, petaflops is great and all, but we've seen commodity clusters before... Anton is specialized, cool! Interesting to see that it can do so much more at a lower clock frequency because of that. Of course, it limits the uses which is a concern when you invest supercomputer-scale amount of money... but hey

[kyrathaba]

In thinking about its uses now in biochemistry, imagine what they'll be able to model in a decade, with the improvements and innovations made in the intervening years...

[Renegade]

In thinking about its uses now in biochemistry, imagine what they'll be able to model in a decade, with the improvements and innovations made in the intervening years...

-kyrathaba (October 23, 2010, 10:24 AM)

It's very exciting to think about these things.

The things that mostly interest me are in physics, but who cares? It's all really fun to find out about.

[kyrathaba]

A new contender has taken the prize for fastest supercomputer in the world.

Unveiled today at the Annual Meeting of National High Performance Computing (HPC China 2010) in Beijing, Tianhe-1A is the world’s fastest supercomputer with a performance record of 2.507 petaflops, as measured by the LINPACK benchmark.

[MilesAhead]

Every time I see these announcements of the newest superest computer I can't help thinking of John C. Dvorak and the 80286 with the Chang Modification.  Seems some dude made some genius modification to a 286 PC that allowed it to outperform 386 PCs with faster processors.

Turns out the guy just took the guts out of the benchmark.  Sure put up a high number though!!!