Are Supercomputers Worth the Hype?

Supercomputing technology includes supercomputers, the world's fastest computers. Interconnects, I/O systems, memory, and processor cores comprise supercomputers.

 

Supercomputers, as opposed to traditional computers, employ more than one central processing unit (CPU). These CPUs are organized into compute nodes, which consist of a processor or a group of processors (symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)) and a memory block. A supercomputer can have tens of thousands of nodes at scale. 

 

These nodes with interconnecting communication capabilities can work together to solve a specific problem. Interconnects are also used by nodes to communicate with I/O systems such as data storage and networking. Let us first understand what are supercomputers 

 

What are Supercomputers?

 

Supercomputers outperform general-purpose computers in terms of performance because their architectural and operational models rely on parallel and grid processing. The primary motivation for developing a supercomputer was to use it in large-scale organizations that require more computing power.

 

A supercomputer is a type of extremely powerful computer. The term is commonly used to refer to the most powerful high-performance systems available at any given time. Such computers have primarily been used for scientific and engineering work that requires extremely fast computations. 

 

Supercomputers are commonly used to test mathematical models for complex physical phenomena or designs such as climate and weather, cosmic evolution, nuclear weapons and reactors, new chemical compounds (particularly for pharmaceutical purposes), and cryptology. As the cost of supercomputing fell in the 1990s, more companies began to use them for market research and other business-related models.

 

A supercomputer is the world's fastest computer, capable of processing large amounts of data very quickly. A "supercomputer's" computing performance is extremely high when compared to a general-purpose computer. A supercomputer's computing performance is measured in FLOPS (floating-point operations per second) rather than 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 a grid to a cluster system of massively parallel computing. Cluster system computing means that a machine uses multiple processors in one system instead of arrays of separate computers in a network.

 

In terms of size, these computers are enormous. A powerful supercomputer can range in size from a few feet to hundreds of feet. The cost of a supercomputer ranges from 2 lakh dollars to more than 100 million dollars.

 

Also Read | Best Supercomputers in the World

 

What can a Supercomputer do? 

 

The primary contribution of supercomputing to science has been its ever-improving ability to simulate reality. This capability assists humans in making better performance predictions and designing better products in industries ranging from manufacturing and oil to pharmaceutical and military. One of the world's foremost supercomputing experts, Jack Dongarra, compared that ability to possess a crystal ball.

 

Supercomputers are used to rapidly simulate various potential outcomes. These lightning-fast computers are used by government agencies and corporations for everything from discovering new oil reserves to developing life-saving drugs. Listed below are some of the domains where supercomputers can be broadly used:

 

1. Weather Forecasting:

 

Forecasts from your local weatherman are based on data from supercomputers run by NOAA, or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA's systems perform database operations, mathematical and statistical calculations, and data analysis on massive amounts of data collected from across the country and around the world. Supercomputer processing power assists climatologists in predicting not only the likelihood of rain in your neighborhood but also the paths of hurricanes and the likelihood of tornado strikes.

 

2. Military and Defense Operations:

 

With the growing population, there is little opportunity to test weapons in public. Supercomputers, on the other hand, have even replaced the need for such outdoor equipment. Almost every defense system on the planet has one of these supercomputers capable of simulating nuclear explosions and weapon ballistics.

 

3. Scientific Investigation:

 

Scientific research, like the weather, is dependent on supercomputers' ability to crunch numbers. Astronomers at NASA, for example, analyze data streaming from earth-orbiting satellites, ground-based optical and radio telescopes, and probes exploring the solar system. The Higgs-Boson particle was discovered by researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, after analyzing massive amounts of data generated by the Large Hadron Collider.

 

4. Intelligence Services:

 

Supercomputers are used by the National Security Agency and other government intelligence agencies around the world to monitor communications between private citizens, suspected terrorist organizations, and potentially hostile governments. To keep up with increasingly sophisticated encryption of Internet, cell phone, email, and satellite transmissions – as well as old-fashioned radio communications – the NSA requires the numerical processing power of supercomputers. 

 

Furthermore, the NSA employs supercomputers to detect patterns in both written and spoken communication that may alert officials to potential threats or suspicious activity.

 

5. Data Exploration:

 

To extract information from raw data collected from data farms on the ground or in the cloud, some supercomputers are required. Businesses, for example, can use data collected from cash registers to help control inventory or spot market trends. Supercomputers are used by life insurance companies to reduce actuarial risks. Similarly, companies that provide health insurance reduce costs and customer premiums by statistically analyzing the benefits of various treatment options.

 

Supercomputers vs Manual Computers:

 

When comparing a supercomputer to a mainframe computer, A supercomputer is a computer that has an extremely high level of performance when compared to a standard personal computer, laptop, or desktop. A mainframe computer, on the other hand, is a large-scale module that is used to run databases and as a data storage facility. It manages bulk data processing, statistics, and data analysis.

 

Today, we will distinguish between the supercomputer and the mainframe computer based on the following criteria. Despite their many similarities, a supercomputer and a mainframe computer have many differences. Let's get started!

 

1. Definition:

 

Supercomputers are purpose-built computers designed to solve scientific and mathematical problems for engineers and scientists. These computers are used to solve problems that require a high level of speed and memory. A mainframe computer is a scalable and purpose-driven computer that helps an organization store large databases and can simultaneously serve a large number of people.

 

2. Size and velocity:

 

A supercomputer is faster than a mainframe computer because it can process millions or billions of instructions in a matter of seconds. Furthermore, these are the largest computer systems available, with greater computing capacity than a mainframe computer. However, both provide parallel processing, which results in faster computation. The processing speed is measured in FLOPS, while the mainframe speed is measured in MIPS.

 

3. Purpose:

 

A mainframe computer is used by businesses to handle large amounts of output, input, and storage data. A mainframe computer performs simple calculations as well as computations with large amounts of data. Supercomputers assist in complex computation tasks and may concentrate on problems with speed or calculation limitations. They are primarily concerned with solving problems that are constrained by reliability or input/output data.

 

4. Applications:

 

A mainframe computer is frequently used as the central receiving and switching computer in a national or regional computer network. A mainframe computer can handle all input and output requirements of all terminals connected because it functions as a database server. Mainframe computers are primarily used by banks and financial institutions. Scientific research, mathematical modeling, weather prediction, and astrophysics all benefit from supercomputers.

 

5. Memory: 

 

RAM and ROM are the two main types of memory. A supercomputer must have a large amount of memory. A supercomputer, in contrast to our everyday computers, has a massive amount of RAM and ROM. The Sunway Taihu Light, for example, has 1.31 PB of RAM, which is equivalent to 1310000 gigabytes! And the ROM has a capacity of 20PB (20000000 gigabytes)!

 

When it comes to mainframe computers, there is no set amount of memory. Because mainframe computers are used for databases, they have a lot of storage space. Often, huge buildings or floors of tall buildings are used to store the databases of mainframe computers. As a result, it varies according to the size and quantity of the data.

 

6. Calculation Power:

 

A supercomputer's performance is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS). In 1960, the first supercomputer was built. The CDC 6600 has a clock speed of 500-kilo flops. The CRAY-1, built in 1976, was the first successful supercomputer. It was 1.9 Gigaflops fast!

 

It may appear strange that those supercomputers were not as powerful as today's standard desktop computers, but they played an important role in their time. The Sunway Taihu light is currently the fastest supercomputer, with a Linpack benchmark score of 93000 trillion (93 PETA) calculation speeds per second! The leading supercomputer producers are China and the United States.

 

Also Read | 5 Applications of the Internet of Nano Things

 

Future of Supercomputers

 

Your current smartphone is as fast as a supercomputer from 1994, which had 1,000 processors and could perform nuclear simulations. (Does that have an app?) It stands to reason that the smartphone you have in a quarter-century could theoretically be on Aurora's level. The point is, this stuff moves quickly — and it's only getting faster.

 

Aside from raw speed, one significant difference between a supercomputer and a mainframe is that a mainframe serves many people at once or runs multiple programs at the same time, whereas a supercomputer focuses its power on executing a few programs at high speeds. Mainframe computers are primarily used for large data storage and manipulation tasks, rather than computationally intensive tasks.

 

Multiple central processing units comprise supercomputer architectures (CPUs). These CPUs are organized into groups of compute nodes and memory. Supercomputers can have thousands of nodes that communicate with one another to solve problems using parallel processing.

 

Some supercomputer centers in the United States are linked via an internet backbone known as the very high-speed Backbone Network Service, or vBNS, which is part of the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET). NSFNET serves as the foundation for the National Technology Grid, an evolving network infrastructure. This initiative includes Internet2, a university-led project.

 

Data center administrators can use clustering for a do-it-yourself approach at the low end of supercomputing. The Beowulf Project provides instructions for assembling off-the-shelf PC processors, running Linux operating systems, and connecting them via Fast Ethernet. Parallel processing requires the development of applications.

 

The supercomputer and high-performance computing (HPC) market is expanding as more vendors develop their own supercomputers, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Nvidia. As AI capabilities gain traction in industries ranging from predictive medicine to manufacturing, HPC is becoming increasingly important. According to Hyperion Research, the supercomputer market will be worth $46 billion by 2024.

 

The race to exascale processing capabilities is the current focus of the supercomputer market. Exascale computing may open up new possibilities that exceed those of even the most advanced supercomputers. Exascale supercomputers are expected to be capable of creating an accurate model of the human brain, complete with neurons and synapses. This would have a significant impact on neuromorphic computing.