Geek Quiz
Created by OnePlusYou
I’m a little disappointed that I couldn’t do better. I mean, I have a piled higher and deeper in geek, for frel’s sake.
6/24/2008
6/9/2008
Petaflop Supercomputer
There is a petaflop supercomputer currently running at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Awesome!
There is at least one supercomputer being built in the U.S. at any given time; at least, I’m pretty sure of this, since that was what was happening when I was an intern at one of the National Labs. It seems like there is a trade between Labs with respect to who gets the next one. A supercomputer requires special facilities that include enough cooling ability (the new petaflop computer needs 3 Megawatts of power to run it, and that means a lot of heat is generated) and also the required security. This can take a while to build, and of course the computer itself takes a while to build.
These supercomputers are used for simulations of a classified nature, and when they are operating the room is closed of to those who don’t possess the required security clearance. The simulations allow for scientists to understand, for instance, what happens to nuclear weapons as they age without actually having to set samples of them off.
The fact that these supercomputers exist allowed the U.S. to agree to not doing any live testing since they make testing pretty much unnecessary. They probably have other uses but I prefer not to speculate about things not publicly admitted to; I did not have the clearance so I don’t know and even if I did I would say nothing. Some secrets exist for a reason.
The older supercomputers to not go to waste by any means. They can be used for less intensive computations. Also, at the facility I visited they had set aside a portion of the older supercomputer for anyone’s use. That was pretty much the only time I did any parallel programming.
By the way, apparently Bush was behind the initiative to get the U.S. back in the supercomputer business and currently we have the fastest ones on the planet. I don’t agree with a lot of his domestic policies, but this one was a good one. The U.S. is about high-tech, and we need to keep up on that front, lest we become a country that only exports entertainment. That would not be a good thing.
Link found in the sidebar at ace of spades hq