The world of supercomputing is as competitive as an Olympic sport.
Nations develop new systems each year in hopes of seeing them climb the charts. Supercomputers are designed by mainstream companies like IBM ans Hewlett-Packard and have a deployable life span of a few years. They have names like Jaguar, Roadrunner and Interpid, and can crack codes or predict the weather. One in the works in Illinois, USA, will help explain the cosmos, scientists say.
The predominant measurer of these machines today is the Top 500 list. It’s all about speed – which supercomputer can do the most calculations in a second. Today, China owns the fastest machine. Tomorrow is another story.
Five of the 10 fastest supercomputers in 2005 came from the United States. Two more were built in Japan, and one in Spain, one in Netherlands and Switzerland. The latest list still puts 5 fastest US machines in the first 10 slots, but the other players have changed. The most notable newcomer is China. In addition to boasting the fastest computer in the world, the Chinese have also built another ranked third.
A month after China reached the peak of the top 500 list, the president’s science and technology council issued a report cautioning that a race to create the fastest system according to the Linpack benchmark could distract from more fruitful pursuits in high performance computing, or HPC.
Supercomputers are built for more than just contests and rankings. They play a critical role in matters of science and national defence, said Thomas Sterling, a computer science professor at Louisiana State University best known for his part in developing the Beowolf class of computer clusters in the 1990s. Supercomputers are critical for engineering simulations that led to the creation of state-of-the-art weapon systems like the stealth aircraft that is now being developed by the Chinese. They help the military develop complex battle simulations, control autonomous vehicles and figure out enemy communications.