A supercomputer is a computer that is considered, or was considered at the time of its introduction, to be at the frontline in terms of processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. The term "Super Computing" was first used by New York World newspaper in 1929[1] to refer to large custom-built tabulators IBM made for Columbia University.
(source wikipedia)
ENIAC was not the first computer - the Anastoff Berry Computer was the first - ENIAC was patented first at that time.The first computer in India was TIFRAC - was comissioned in TIFR in 1962.There are many applications of supercomputers today in different areas and some applications are:
A particular class of problems, known as Grand Challenge problems, are problems whose full solution requires semi-infinite computing resources.
Relevant here is the distinction between capability computing and capacity computing, as defined by Graham et al.
Capability computing is typically thought of as using the maximum computing power to solve a large problem in the shortest amount of time. Often a capability system is able to solve a problem of a size or complexity that no other computer can.
Capacity computing in contrast is typically thought of as using efficient cost-effective computing power to solve somewhat large problems or many small problems or to prepare for a run on a capability system.
The performance of a supercomputer depends on the speed of a computer plus the speed of other parts.For transaction processing the performance is talked about in MOPS (Millions of operations per second) and there are floating point operations - today TFLOPS.Measuring the performance of a supercomputer is done by:
(source wikipedia)
ENIAC was not the first computer - the Anastoff Berry Computer was the first - ENIAC was patented first at that time.The first computer in India was TIFRAC - was comissioned in TIFR in 1962.There are many applications of supercomputers today in different areas and some applications are:
- Wind tunnel modeling to test planes
- Climate modeling for a short time period and for longer time periods.Short time periods are in "days" (a maximum of a 5 days even today) and longer time periods range from weeks to a month.Even this is sometimes erratic.
Other Common uses
Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems involving quantum mechanical physics, weather forecasting, climate research (including research into global warming), molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), physical simulations (such as simulation of airplanes in wind tunnels, simulation of the detonation of nuclear weapons, and research into nuclear fusion), cryptanalysis, and the like. Major universities, military agencies and scientific research laboratories are heavy users.A particular class of problems, known as Grand Challenge problems, are problems whose full solution requires semi-infinite computing resources.
Relevant here is the distinction between capability computing and capacity computing, as defined by Graham et al.
Capability computing is typically thought of as using the maximum computing power to solve a large problem in the shortest amount of time. Often a capability system is able to solve a problem of a size or complexity that no other computer can.
Capacity computing in contrast is typically thought of as using efficient cost-effective computing power to solve somewhat large problems or many small problems or to prepare for a run on a capability system.
The performance of a supercomputer depends on the speed of a computer plus the speed of other parts.For transaction processing the performance is talked about in MOPS (Millions of operations per second) and there are floating point operations - today TFLOPS.Measuring the performance of a supercomputer is done by:
- Using benchmarks for scientific calculations ie. SPEC, Whetstone,Dhrystone benchmarks
- For transaction processing TPC Benchmarks are used.
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