Cray supercomputers?

[dragos240]

Hello!

I once asked my dad what was the fastest, best computer there is, he said a cray supercomputer. I looked on their website and they are HUGE! What purpous do they serve? Are they used for servers?

[elianthony]

Many of them are, and have been for some time, used in environments where a HUGE amount of computing power is required. Scientific research, and the like.

[Paqman]

Lot's of people user supercomputers. A lot of it is running simulations like weather forecasting, but there's plenty of raw number crunching. Take SETI for example, they have massive amounts of data to shift through looking for possible signals from alien civilisations. They used to buy time on supercomputers to do this, but when their funding got pulled a few years back they developed a system to use millions of home computers over the internet to match the power they'd get from a supercomputer. Cunning stuff.

[Tipped OuT]

Aren't they used for cracking complex codes too?

[dragos240]

Aren't they used for cracking complex codes too?

Sounds fun.

[ad_267]

Now days I think a lot of applications are shifting to using clusters of many desktop machines rather than purpose built supercomputers.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

Historically, servers tend to be used mostly for storing data, and disseminating that data to users. That is why many people use their old computers with low-end CPUs and upgraded disk capacity for servers. Servers haven't been used to processes the data very much. That may change if cloud computing actually becomes a reality; however, that will not be as computationally intensive as what supercomputers are used for. Supercomputers do not have very high input/output bandwidth; because, that is not their purpose. Supercomputers are used for simulation of weather, analysis of data for confirming the theories of physics, simulating theories of physics, and the like. The answer to the best computer actually depends a lot on what you are using it for.

The definition of a supercomputer, as in, a Cray is changing. May individual computers or blades working in unison is starting to replace the need for the massive supercomputer as we knew them.

There is always an overlap of needs and capabilities when defining what is a server, supercomputer, and so on.

[H2SO_four]

I use mine to read your e-mail :)

[The Real Dave]

Another purpose of the infamous Crays is rendering things like water. Sounds simple, but it takes a huge amount of power to properly render water. Why? Because water is a liquid, a collection of molecules bumping off each other. Each of these colissions must be calculated, and their effects on that specific molecule, those surrounding them, all under the laws of physics. Considering that there could be millions of molecules of water in a rain drop, the huge amount of power required to render an ocean becomes more understandable

[lovinglinux]

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_computer), the fastest super computer is the IBM Roadrunner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM Roadrunner) [wikipedia.org].

[monsterstack]

If you're going on pure processing power, then the IBM Roadrunner is the most powerful of all the supercomputers. You'll be pleased to know that in just a few years, the most powerful supercomputers will rival the processing power of the human brain. Within thirty years, supercomputers will rival the processing power of every person alive. Skynet is just around the corner, folks.

[lovinglinux]

BTW, the purpose of the Roadrunner is "Modeling the decay of the U.S. nuclear arsenal"

[samjh]

Hello!

I once asked my dad what was the fastest, best computer there is, he said a cray supercomputer. I looked on their website and they are HUGE! What purpous do they serve? Are they used for servers?

Usually scientific research. I seem to recall Crays being used for weather modelling, in particular.

Crays are, I think, among the last of the old-school monolithic supercomputers. Most of the new supercomputers these days are just a massive collection of smaller computer units running in parallel, and Cray Inc have moved onto those designs as well.

[freebeer]

What purpous do they serve?

Getting decent response times in Vista? :D