As per the BBC News report yesterday, the bi-annual top 500 supercomputer list has been released and shows some interesting statistics. As a criminologist and a dyscalculiac, I need numbers but can barely read them at the same time. Nevertheless, these statistics show some interesting facts.
Information today is the new worldwide currency. This has been seen all over, with intelligence agencies fighting wars over intelligence, lives being lost for the sake of a prototype, and a worldwide network of intelligence gatherers working against their own governments. Information is priceless, and the ability to number crunch at the end of the day will be the nation's way of 'comparing sizes' at the global urinal.
This shows beyond the fact that the US is really storming the world with its supercomputing technology, especially in weather prediction, environmental research and governmentally controlled and run systems which maintain defense and suchlike.
It shows in my eyes how wide the supercomputer use is yielding results like we have never seen in the academic community. Nobody gets answers like universities and to provide these institutions with these technologies also spurs on the development of students. Access levels will probably be restricted to undergraduate students, but nevertheless the technology is there and will be a full-frontal assault on developing the knowledge that we have yet to get.