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| Definition: Supercomputer is the term normally used to denote the fastest, most powerful class of computers at any given point in time. These are built for optimum computational performance. Description: The speed of computers is often measured in Floating-Point Operations per Second (FLOPS). For example an Intel Pentium PC running at 200 MHz will have a speed of 15 - 20 mega-flops depending on the internal architecture and application. The lower end of current class of supercomputers are capable of 800 mega-flops (m-flops). Supercomputer systems that use multiple processors working together in parallel have performances that range from five gigaflops through to 1.8 terraflops (tflops)or greater. Traditionally these systems have used either custom chip technology e.g. Gallium Arsenide as used by Seymour Cray in the design of the Cray 4 system, or purpose designed parallel processing chips such as the Inmos's transputer based systems. To achieve current speeds of operation, a number of different computer design methods have evolved including parallel vector processing and symmetric multi-processing. Parallel vector processing requires the design of specialist computer architectures with custom designed microprocessors and are most suited to mathematically intense applications. Symmetric multi-processing systems to use a number of standard chips, for instance Intel Pentium microprocessors, running under one operating system e.g. Microsoft NT, working together in parallel. Application: Traditional markets for supercomputer systems were based upon the manipulation of large quantities of data predominantly for military and scientific research applications such as weather forecasting, aircraft design, nuclear physics research, and cryptography. Increasingly supercomputer systems and techniques derived from super computer research are being used in communications and multimedia markets. Video and media servers are essentially small supercomputers which are used to feed multimedia information into cable and satellite networks. Graphics Supercomputers such as the Silicon Graphics Onyx Reality series are increasingly being used in the development of Virtual reality applications and computer graphics for broadcast television. Symmetric multiprocessing techniques are used to produce powerful network servers which use standard operating systems, for instance a dual or quad Intel Pentium based PC running Microsoft NT and acting as a low cost media/web server on an enterprise network. Business Advantage: Supercomputer systems provide high levels of computational power for problem solving and simulation. Supercomputer related techniques are increasingly being used in the personal computer market in order to develop low cost high powered computing platforms especially in the field of network and web server technologies. Business Disadvantage: Supercomputer systems are very expensive both to purchase and maintain, with prices varying depending upon computational power from . Physically they can occupy a substantial amount of space and need controlled environments in terms of cooling and air conditioning. Software for larger supercomputer installations is usually custom written and can be difficult to design, develop and maintain |
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