supercomputers

News

• Open Source Spotlight - Yabi: Bringing drag-and-drop to supercomputers

  Supercomputers are powerful tools for scientists. They are also very expensive, so wasted time can mean a lot of wasted resources. But making the most efficient use of them is not the easiest proposition in the world; it's not just a case of clicking a button to analyse a protein. However, fitting out the world of supercomputers with a user-friendly, web-based interface is the focus of an open source project based at Western Australia's Murdoch University.

• Intel plans 'superchip' for high-performance computing

  Intel is investing in the development of a "superchip" for high-performance computing systems that the company hopes will raise its supercomputing profile.

• US lab aims for fastest supercomputer with Titan

  A government research lab in Tennessee will deploy a new supercomputer later this year that could put the U.S. back in contention for the top spot on the list of the world's fastest supercomputers.

• IBM supercomputer to boost health research in Victoria

  The University of Melbourne (UoM) has acquired one of the world’s fastest and greenest supercomputers to help further the study of human diseases.

• Cray courts the big-data market

  Supercomputer company Cray has created a new division that will sell big-data systems, the company has announced. The division will market its offerings to large enterprises, which will be a new kind of client for the company.

• Nvidia: Gaming systems to reach 'tens of teraflops' by 2019

  Graphics processor maker Nvidia expects gaming systems will reach a performance of "tens of teraflops" by the end of the decade, and be capable of displaying real-time visuals as good as the pre-rendered cut scenes found in games today, according to company CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

• U.S. HPC Lead in Danger

  The SC11 supercomputing conference in Seattle last month saw an almost obsessive focus on the development of an exascale computing system -- one that would be roughly 1,000 times more powerful than any existing system -- before the end of the decade .

• Intel pushes 50-core chip, mulls exascale computing

  Intel is drumming up support for its latest 50-core Knights Corner and Xeon E5 server chips, which are key elements in the company's plans to scale performance while reducing power consumption moving toward an exascale supercomputer by 2018.

• Amazon Web Services adds supercomputing service to its cloud

  Amazon Web Services (AWS) wants to attract more high-performance computing users to its cloud and has launched a public beta of Cluster Compute Eight Extra Large, its most powerful cloud service yet.

• CSIRO has second fastest Windows supercomputer

  A CSIRO GPU supercomputer has been ranked as the second fastest computer running Windows in the world.

• Fujitsu to team with Whamcloud in Lustre development

  Fujitsu said Tuesday it will work with Whamcloud to develop new features for the open-source Lustre file system aimed at high-performance computing.

• Top500 list passes another milestone: 10 petaflops

  Japan's K Computer has retained its pole position on the Top500 list of fastest supercomputers and become the first machine on the list to achieve performance of more than 10 petaflops.

• China's newest supercomputer uses homegrown chips

  China has built its first supercomputer based entirely on homegrown microprocessors, a major step in breaking the country's reliance on Western technology for high-performance computing.

• IBM simulates 4.5% of the human brain; Skynet is next

  It's pretty well known at this point that computers are quickly catching up with humanity as far as brain power is concerned. Storage-wise, we've been long surpassed by machines, and powerfully fast computers can run circles around the human brain in solving complex equations. On the other hand, humanity wins in the brain's sheer computational power and energy efficiency.

• Adapteva aims 64-core chip at tablets, smartphones

  Smartphones and tablets are demanding more computing power, and chip company Adapteva hopes to bring server-type performance to the devices with a chip it is announcing on Monday.