Gallery: Inside Japan's K Computer - world's top supercomputer
by Andy Smith | June 20, 2011 8:51am PDT | Image 1 of 11
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Japan's K Computer took over first place as the top-performing supercomputer in the world as determined by the Top500 Supercomputing List. The K Computer, which is housed at the Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, has 672 computer racks and 68,544 CPUs. This system achieved a LINPACK benchmark performance of 8.162 petaflops (quadrillion floating-point operations per second).
But this supercomputer isn't even finished. That should happen in November 2012 when it is expected to house more than 800 computer racks and exceed 10 petaflops.
For more on the supercomputer showdown, read Larry Dignan's blog. And Steven Vaughan-Nichols tells why Linux powers the fastest supercomputers.
Photo: Riken
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I think you've misspelled "computer" multiple times.
In 10 years the even more powerful "U" computer will be the size of a laptop and cost $1899.95 with a $20 rebate. As it is with people so it is with computers: the amazing physical hardware is cheap to reproduce, it's the culture and education of the individual that's expensive. I would assume the "K" isn't just for checking emal and surfing. Who uses it for what then? That's the interesting question.
@leifharmsen One use would be prediction models, like an earth simulation, or a virtual reconstruction of the Big Bang. A distributed computing project like Seti@Home would probably love to have something like the K in its network.
@leifharmsen
Modelling things like the effects of earthquakes and tsunamis on nuclear power plants so that future designs will not fail as spectacularly as Fukajima.
Modelling things like the effects of earthquakes and tsunamis on nuclear power plants so that future designs will not fail as spectacularly as Fukajima.
It's not the modeling that's lacking, as the the lack of common sense of designers. Fukushima's cooling generators should've been built uphill away from the plant and potential floodwaters. Ft. Calhoun, potentially many times worse, is already experiencing flooding conditions, and the snowpacks are barely starting to melt after this hard winter's snow.
@bannedagain
I watched that Fukashima scene with "WTF were they thinking?". There's the Nuclear plant and what's that I hear? Oh, a tsunami siren. Are you nuts? Could someone with a picogram of brains figured out that a tsunami site, complete with a siren, wasn't the best choice for a nuclear reactor?
I watched that Fukashima scene with "WTF were they thinking?". There's the Nuclear plant and what's that I hear? Oh, a tsunami siren. Are you nuts? Could someone with a picogram of brains figured out that a tsunami site, complete with a siren, wasn't the best choice for a nuclear reactor?
Supercomputing has done an amazing jobs..You've got to be there to see these projects behind these supercomputing.. Fukajima was built before supercomputing era. Instead of buildings with different constructions for testing, UCSD was able to stimulate many different scenarios and construction types. It cutting down time and money tremendously. When they finalize down to 3 buildings, then UCSD and its partners to build real building for testings. Simple words could not describe the potential of supercomputing.
There are thousand of on going projects utilizing these busy supercomputing center.
Most of these projects have served its purposes. The only problem I see from the inside is sharing these information or commercialize them or license so private companies can take to the next level.
I have been working closely with movies studios to create billion dollars industry every year. Instead of building their own, studios can rent or lease these processing time so they can cut down the time, improve efficiency and money to produce high quality movies with cool special effects.
Simply amazing..The Japanese and German know how to share these supercomputing for both commercial and research purposes.
There are thousand of on going projects utilizing these busy supercomputing center.
Most of these projects have served its purposes. The only problem I see from the inside is sharing these information or commercialize them or license so private companies can take to the next level.
I have been working closely with movies studios to create billion dollars industry every year. Instead of building their own, studios can rent or lease these processing time so they can cut down the time, improve efficiency and money to produce high quality movies with cool special effects.
Simply amazing..The Japanese and German know how to share these supercomputing for both commercial and research purposes.
@leifharmsen
Apparently you didn't bother to get to the last slide, then.
Apparently you didn't bother to get to the last slide, then.
@DeusXMachina LOL!!!!! I guess he didn't =P
@deadfraggle Or figure out where the water on earth came from ? An is there more where that came from ? very exciting
Can't wait to play Duke Nukem Forever on that machine...
@josjoskens@... You and me both, man.
My prediction is that it will be obsolete just a few short weeks after it is done. It is going to be hard to be the best with 45 nm technology.
@atwood@...
Um, what?!?
Wanna bet?
Um, what?!?
Wanna bet?
Call me crazy - and I know you'll want to - but, I'd put the entire thing to work designing its successor. There's no denying that our technology has given us the evolutionary edge we need to render the indifference of nature to our survival moot. Computing power is what will solve the problems of mortality and cognitive failure. Perhaps even the world's best supercomputer today isn't up to that task, but one of its successors will be. THAT's what this computer should be working on.
@Naumadd
And how would you do that? Do you even know how computers work. Hint: software isn't just people typing questions into a black box.
And how would you do that? Do you even know how computers work. Hint: software isn't just people typing questions into a black box.
@DeusXMachina He doesn't have to know.. but there are those who do.
@Naumadd I'm thinking map out each neuron in the human mind and simulate the brain! Then we can call that new supercomputer Skynet and unleash it upon the world! Woo!
@razorsyntax
ditto on that
ditto on that
@Naumadd
Was not this the idea of 'Deep Thought' who designed the Earth (Hitch-Hikers Guide fans step in now).
Was not this the idea of 'Deep Thought' who designed the Earth (Hitch-Hikers Guide fans step in now).
@geoffrey.seymour LOL, yes...
Wonder what the battery life on that.
@eric@... The normal battery time is very likely between 30 and 60 minutes.
It only has to be enough to get auxiliary diesel generators on line.
It only has to be enough to get auxiliary diesel generators on line.
I believe this article (and most modern thinking on "supercomputers") is missing the most basic point in the definition of what a "supercomputer" really is. The article references what really is a super-parallel *NOT* a super-computer system. A true super computer is one where a single CPU in one step after another until the end of the program fetches, decodes & executes faster than any other available single CPU system. The true test of a real super computer is not complex multi-input parallel processing weather pattern or atomic level phenomena analysis but rather how fast a step by step problem where the output from step 1 processing is required as input to step 2 etc. can be solved. In simpler terms a super computer system is one with the fastest straight line instruction rate for one CPU, not the greatest aggregate rate for the largest collection of parallel CPUs.
@jcoffey73 yeah...shame on you all guys...because a cluster of computers working on parallel over one single task is not a supercomputer...LOL =P
and a term can be made to accommodate a new paradigm if the new system performs the task at hand with the same results that could be expected from the original.
Thus, if a massively parallel computer can achieve the same results as a single super-fast CPU, and the parallelism does it far more efficiently, then the new system becomes the new champ in the "super-computing" category. The term "super-computer" does not denote the method for completing a task, nor the construction of the computer itself.
Time to move up to the new modern interpretation of the definition.
Thus, if a massively parallel computer can achieve the same results as a single super-fast CPU, and the parallelism does it far more efficiently, then the new system becomes the new champ in the "super-computing" category. The term "super-computer" does not denote the method for completing a task, nor the construction of the computer itself.
Time to move up to the new modern interpretation of the definition.
I keep an add from back in the late 80's. It's a "Tandy 5000 MC Professional System" with VGA Graphics, 2mb of Memory expandable to 16MB, the system could even run pagemaker. These prices excluded monitor and Keyboard.
And it was illegal to export it, less it fall into the hands of nefarious foreign countries.
My How things have changed.
And it was illegal to export it, less it fall into the hands of nefarious foreign countries.
My How things have changed.
@RayInLV : Oh yea, it cost only $8,499
@RayInLV
2mb of memory, try 512k and a well known person said 'no one will ever need ore that 640k of RAM'
2mb of memory, try 512k and a well known person said 'no one will ever need ore that 640k of RAM'
Yeah but can it play Duke Nukem Forever??
Like all tools, they can be used for good or evil. It's the wrong choices that get people and humanity into trouble.
Does this come with Solitaire?
These super computers look no different than the big IBM mainframes of a decade or two ago. Water cooling and all.
because, at the time of the mainframes, there was also a class of computers classified as "super computers".
Today's PCs, with 2 and 4 and 6 and more CPUs and/or cores, are much more powerful than the mainframes of the past and even the super computers of the past.
Today's mainframes are a lot more powerful than the supercomputers of the past, and today's supercomputers are a lot more powerful than the mainframes of today. The power of today's mainframes and even today's supercomputers, may end up in the hands of the general public within a few years. Then, tomorrow's mainframes and tomorrows computers, will make today's supercomputers seem like mere toys.
Today's PCs, with 2 and 4 and 6 and more CPUs and/or cores, are much more powerful than the mainframes of the past and even the super computers of the past.
Today's mainframes are a lot more powerful than the supercomputers of the past, and today's supercomputers are a lot more powerful than the mainframes of today. The power of today's mainframes and even today's supercomputers, may end up in the hands of the general public within a few years. Then, tomorrow's mainframes and tomorrows computers, will make today's supercomputers seem like mere toys.
How sad. Why didn't they build it with this geometry?
Will the last IT computer designer to leave North America please turn off the computer room lights?
LOL. Maybe they could sell this silo and transport it to Japan.
BTW, where is Sun these days?
Will the last IT computer designer to leave North America please turn off the computer room lights?
LOL. Maybe they could sell this silo and transport it to Japan.
BTW, where is Sun these days?
Mostly it will be predicting stock market trends seconds before they happen, and using the results to speculate on the market.
The code is related to Deep Thought in form and will turn stock buying into a poker game where 'buying the pot' will be normal.
Say goodbye to honest marketplaces.
The code is related to Deep Thought in form and will turn stock buying into a poker game where 'buying the pot' will be normal.
Say goodbye to honest marketplaces.
with that kind of power, a program could be written that would allow the formulation of an anti cancer drug.
Or take a popular movie and a short video clip of you walking and talking and running, insert you in the movie in the place of any of the actors... or change the ending..etc.
Or take a popular movie and a short video clip of you walking and talking and running, insert you in the movie in the place of any of the actors... or change the ending..etc.
How about using it to track down all hackers and destroy their computers?
Any way much is that machine
Once again the homo sapiens started the EGO race to
the moon!
the moon!
Proclaiming a computer to be the "world's top supercomputer" is like proclaiming the "world's fastest aircraft". Governments are not going to reveal the truth about, or even the existence of their fastest computers.
Does anyone really believe that NSA is going to tell the world about their fastest supercomputer? I'm not saying that the K is NOT the fastest, just that we can't be sure.
Does anyone really believe that NSA is going to tell the world about their fastest supercomputer? I'm not saying that the K is NOT the fastest, just that we can't be sure.
@rwhaller42 You are right the government would not want to reveal their capability to outside world. B'coz they need to protect their resources,nuclear weapons.This is the only way to protect.
I am dismayed to see how many people here unwittingly purport their faith in "computers", as if they weren't entirely dependant on all-too-human programmers. Warts and all.
Re: "...design of the 6-dimensional mesh/torus topology in the K computer..." - C'mon, you marketing hype-sters! This is an "oooh" and "ahhh" technical brochure. At this point we *surely* know how to distinguish the terms "direction" from "dimension", don't we? Or should we bring Brian Greene in here to explain it?
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