Supercomputing: Throughout the ages, humans have tried to understand the world around them while using tools to adapt and solve problems. As the challenges faced increased, humans began to improve the tools in their hands. Ultra-fast supercomputers eventually replaced earlier stone hammers and were used to solve many of the pressing challenges facing society today. Relevant requirements include:
Protect the natural and environmental resources more effectively
Development of new energy and renewable energy
Mitigate the effects of climate change
Predict natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and storms, and plan accordingly for these increasingly frequent disasters
Develop new drugs to treat debilitating diseases.
The scale and complexity of the above problems make it difficult to make progress, and traditional ways of solving them are often too expensive or time-consuming. Supercomputers can speed up the solution process.
It’s all about speed
To put it simply, a supercomputer is a computer that is extremely fast. The K computer, one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, was developed by Fujitsu in cooperation with the Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Japan, under the initiative of the High-Performance Computing Infrastructure Program initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
The K computer can perform 10 trillion calculations per second. Just imagine how fast this is: all seven billion people in the world each use a calculator and are asked to do a calculation every second, 24 hours a day. Then the K computer, the amount of computation performed by all the population in 17 days, takes only 1 second to complete. If an ordinary computer is likened to a snail, then the K computer is a jet plane.
Incredible speed makes supercomputers suitable for intensive computing and simulation computing. Specific simulation applications include events such as car accidents, earthquakes, and tsunamis. In the process of simulating these, supercomputers need to process massive amounts of data with outstanding computing power.
speed race
Globally, many countries are competing to see who can develop the world’s fastest supercomputer. Behind it is the desire to conduct in-depth research in various advanced fields. But it’s not just R&D that benefits from supercomputers. With enhanced safety, design performance and environmental performance, supercomputers will bring innovation across a variety of industries. In addition, a world-leading HPC development environment attracts top-notch scientists and encourages a culture of innovation. This, on the other hand, can improve standard research and even enhance the competitiveness of an entire country (using research results to guide industrial innovation). Supercomputers are like Formula 1 in this regard – companies attract the best drivers with the fastest vehicles, and eventually the associated technology can be used in commercial and passenger cars.
Overcoming current challenges through computing
The CPU is the heart of every computer and is also the central processing unit. A normal computer has only one CPU. By comparison, the K computer was equipped with over 80,000 CPUs. These CPUs are designed for high performance, high reliability and low power consumption. But the CPU is only part of the whole. Equally important is the use of ultra-high-speed interconnect technology to connect all processors and transfer data between them. The innovative K computer internetwork uses a total of 200,000 cables and can extend over 1,200 kilometers. These cables are managed by the LSI Interconnect Controller.
High-performance CPUs and innovative networking technology played a key role in the K computer’s emergence as the fastest computer in the world today. The Japanese government plans to make the K computer widely available to customers and research institutions. The computer will be used to support and accelerate the search for viable solutions to today’s climate and environmental challenges, and to advance cutting-edge research and industry innovation that will ultimately make the world a safer place.