Re: HPC

A machine at China's National University of Defense Technology in Guangzhou, called Tianhe-2 (Milky Way-2) is thought to currently be the fastest supercomputer in existence — variously reported as doing either 34 or 55 petaflops (1 petaflop is equivalent to 1 quadrillion floating-point operations per second).

The executive order, issued by Obama on Wednesday, would set up a body known as the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI) to research and build what is hoped to become the first machine to hit 1 exaflop, equivalent to 1,000 petaflops…

But Industry Tap notes that such a machine would require 200 megawatts of power (compared with 3 megawatts for the current-generation machines). That means "a power plant would be required to run it."

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​<Insert joke about global warming here.>

The president's executive order is just the latest salvo in something of an international supercomputer arms race that has broken out in recent years

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http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/30/427727355/obama-orders-development-of-supercomputer-to-rival-chinas-milky-way

The question on my mind is why do they need it?  I wonder if the Chinese machine would be sentient with the right software running on it?​

 

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A 100-petaflop machine is being developed in the U.S. and is expected to be ready by 2017

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​But can I play Candy Crush on it?​