http://news.ucsc.edu/2011/08/eris-simulation.html Astrophysicists using 4 separate examples of the most powerful supercomputers in the world have managed to put together an accurate simulation of the evolution of the Milky Way based on a Cold Dark Matter Universe model where Dark Matter is used as a "scaffolding" for star formation. They had a problem with previous simulations that always ended up with the central star bulge being extremely large, with wispy almost non existent spiral arms. The problem was that previous simulations with older super computers that couldn't punch the numbers were to low in resolution to accurately portray an extremely important role for supernovae in the center of the galaxy as older stars explode and force gas and dust out of the central bulge and into the spiral arms where that gas can then form shockwaves of star formation. The simulation tracks over 60 million particles and takes into account every known astrophysical dynamic to simulate everything from dust clouds collapsing to form blue stars to the evolution and dying of literally millions of stars keeping track of their individual nebula down to the simulated last particle of gas including which element that particle represents giving an accurate presentation of our galaxy. After running it for months in these monstrous supercomputers they came up with this. The top image represents the visual output of the ERIS simulation, and below is a picture of our own milky way as seen from Earth. http://news.ucsc.edu/2011/08/eris-simulation.html
US at top of supercomputer leaderboard again... U.S. regains supercomputing crown, bests China, Japan June 18, 2012 - New IBM water cooled systems, which use warm or hot water, dominate top 10 of Top500 supercomputer list
On a side note, they should be focusing this powerful computer technology on more directly useful things....
DeathStar wrote: On a side note, they should be focusing this powerful computer technology on more directly useful things... How's dis... Sydney-based team makes breakthrough in supercomputers Fri, Sep 21, 2012 - An Australian-led research team yesterday said it had made a technological breakthrough in the race for a quantum supercomputer that could revolutionize data encryption and medicine.
Oak Ridge's Titan may be fastest supercomputer... New Supercomputer Could be World's Fastest October 29, 2012 - Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S. state of Tennessee have unveiled what could be the worlds fastest supercomputer.
This is something I've noticed. Clock speeds have not been increasing for years now. Instead, they just keep working on adding cores, bumping up bus speeds and so forth. This is why I'm a fan of the G5. It's a great system even today, and all it needs to stay great is modern software. Cue Linux and BSD..
Well that is hold over from Intel being stuck with a necessity for backward compatibility with everything back to the 8086 processors. Because of that market demand, they have to rely on a chip design that is woefully old. You can only pack so many transistors into a design and we've reached a technical limit on the size of transistors that can fit into an old 8086-based form factor. So Intel, rather than forcing a redesign of the entire PC software industry, just adds cores.
Adding cores without coding software that uses them ... if speed is what you need dual 3.2ghz CPU beats any quad at 2.6ghz .
Well... for a specific task... yes... that is what those numbers mean... however once you start threading the quad will win. They have 6 and 8 cores now too... The reason they don't get faster is due to a physics problem. The physical clock is the limitation... it generates too much energy. You have to go to greater lengths to cool it and keep it cool... so as nano fab improves they put more of them on the chip, and clock them down to keep heat dissipation manageable. The next step is asynchronous processing, and nobody is doing anything because microsoft isn't writing operating systems for asynchronous processing. They will keep branding the same old technology as new and improved. It is replaceable technology that we are hooked on. Until there is a need to actually square 1 it, they won't. Oddly enough, it wouldn't be square one processor design really started out asynchronous, long before the microprocessor, there were just limitations we couldn't overcome at the time, which we now can, that pushed us toward the clock hack. From wikipedia, asyncronous chips the ORDVAC and the (identical) ILLIAC I (1951)[11][12] the Johnniac (1953)[13] the WEIZAC (1955) the ILLIAC II (1962)[11] The Victoria University of Manchester built Atlas The Honeywell CPUs 6180 (1972)[14] and Series 60 Level 68 (1981)[15][16] upon which Multics ran asynchronously The Caltech Asynchronous Microprocessor, the world-first asynchronous microprocessor (198; the ARM-implementing AMULET (1993 and 2000); the asynchronous implementation of MIPS R3000, dubbed MiniMIPS (199; several versions of the XAP processor experimented with different asynchronous design styles: a bundled data XAP, a 1-of-4 XAP, and a 1-of-2 (dual-rail) XAP (2003?);[17] an ARM-compatible processor (2003?) designed by Z. C. Yu, S. B. Furber, and L. A. Plana; "designed specifically to explore the benefits of asynchronous design for security sensitive applications";[17] the "Network-based Asynchronous Architecture" processor (2005) that executes a subset of the MIPS architecture instruction set;[17] the HT80C51 processor (2007???) from Handshake Solutions[18] the SEAforth multi-core processor (200 from Charles H. Moore.[19] the GA144[20] multi-core processor (2010) from Charles H. Moore. Charles H. Moore is a cool dude. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Moore Anyway... not only do you have to shove an operating system on it that uses async logic to feed instructions... programs have to be written with asynchronous logic. I am sure there would be some sort of abstraction layer that x86 instructions could use... but... it would require a huge change. Only someone like google could probably pull it off... slowly.
Uncle Ferd says is `cause Chinese computers got squirrel's workin' lil' abacuses in `em... US Titan supercomputer clocked as world's fastest 12 November 2012 - The fastest supercomputer, Titan, was sixth on the list when it was was compiled in June
Granny says, "Mebbe dey could donated it to dat Computer's fer Aferka program... End of the line for Roadrunner supercomputer Mar 30,`13 -- It's the end of the line for Roadrunner, a first-of-its-kind collection of processors that once reigned as the world's fastest supercomputer.
[video=youtube;ss_9HaWxvdk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpag e&v=ss_9HaWxvdk[/video]
possum can do addin' an' subtractin' in his head real fast, although it don't always come out right... Chinese supercomputer named as world's fastest Jun 17,`13 -- China has built the world's fastest supercomputer, almost twice as fast as the previous U.S. holder and underlining the country's rise as a science and technology powerhouse.
Supercomputer copies body's blood flow Supercomputer copies whole-body blood flow Thu, 17 Mar 2016 - Physicists say a supercomputer simulation of blood flow around the entire human body is showing promise, based on an experimental test.
Uncle Ferd still tryin' to figger out the abacus... Chinese Supercomputer World’s Fastest June 20, 2016 - A Chinese supercomputer has been named the world’s fastest.
