IBM Building 20 Petaflop Computer For the US Gov't 248
eldavojohn writes "When it's built, 'Sequoia' will outshine every super computer on the top 500 list today. The specs on this 96 rack beast are a bit hard to comprehend as it consists of 1.6 million processors and some 1.6TB of memory. That's 1.6 million processors — not cores. Its purpose? Primarily to keep track of nuclear waste & simulate explosions of nuclear munitions, but also for research into astronomy, energy, the human genome, and climate change. Hopefully the government uses this magnificent tool wisely when it gets it in 2012."
and just for old time's sake... (Score:4, Funny)
Can you imagine a Beowolf cluster of those?
Mmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Nice rack(s).
OH NOES!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Oh, yes. (Score:5, Funny)
There are many theories as to what this question might be, and now IBM is building a system that will solve this issue once and for all.
at least they admit its true purpose (Score:3, Funny)
don't smell right (Score:4, Funny)
Re:and just for old time's sake... (Score:5, Funny)
Can you imagine a Beowolf cluster of those?
No. No I can't. I can't imagine a beowolf cluster of one those. Even if Natalie Portman (covered in grits) was in my base killing my overlords like an insensitive clod. Even if netcraft confirmed it, then it confirmed netcraft in soviet russia. Especially if Cowboy Neal gave me a three step plan leading to profit I could not imagine it.
Enough with the meme. Or not, because I must be new here.
Re:2012? (Score:5, Funny)
A group of computer scientists build the world's most powerful computer. Let us call it "HyperThought." HyperThought is massively parallel, it contains neural networks, it has teraflop speed., etc. The computer scientists give HyperThought a shakedown run. It easily computes Pi to 10000 places, and factors a 100 digit number. The scientists try find a difficult question that may stump it. Finally, one scientist exclaims: "I know!" "HyperThought," she asks "is there a God?" "There is now," replies the computer.
flops not flop (Score:5, Funny)
flops = floating point operation per second
flop = Gigli
The article got it mostly right. It mentioned 500-teraflop once, but every other time it spelled flops correctly. Slashdot, on the other hand, fucked up the title, despite the fact that it pretty much just copied it from the article (poorly).
Re:OH NOES!!! (Score:5, Funny)
so they can play raytraced quake mods (Score:3, Funny)
Hopefully the government uses this magnificent tool wisely when it gets it in 2012.
Sounds like they are going to port the quake mods to the raytrace q4 engine.
Re:Oh, yes. (Score:5, Funny)
No, no. It's being used to calculate the new national debt.
Re:and just for old time's sake... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Oh, yes. (Score:2, Funny)
No, no. It's being used to calculate the new national debt.
They're going to need a bigger computer.
Fixed if for ya (Score:3, Funny)
"...allowing forecasters to create local weather "events" less than one kilometer across, compared with 10 kilometers today and at speeds up to 40 times faster than current systems."
Re:at least they admit its true purpose (Score:5, Funny)
Primarily to keep track of nuclear waste
And this can't be done with say, Excel?
Re:Processors, not cores (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, but how many CPUs is that?
Re:and just for old time's sake... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh, yes. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:and just for old time's sake... (Score:1, Funny)
It will run Duke Nukem Forever on Vista!
Re:and just for old time's sake... (Score:3, Funny)
In Soviet Russia a beowulf cluster of those imagines you.