First Petaflop Supercomputer To Shut Down 84
An anonymous reader writes "In 2008 Roadrunner was the world's fastest supercomputer. Now that the first system to break the petaflop barrier has lost a step on today's leaders it will be shut down and dismantled. In its five years of operation, the Roadrunner was the 'workhorse' behind the National Nuclear Security Administration's Advanced Simulation and Computing program, providing key computer simulations for the Stockpile Stewardship Program."
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:throw away mentality (actual arcticle link) (Score:5, Interesting)
It costs a _lot_ to keep these computers running (read Millions with a really big M). The power bill alone is an enormous amount of money.
It literally gets to the point where it is cheaper to tear it down and build a new one that is better in flops / Watt than to keep the current one running.