Supercomputer is a high-performance computing system (HPC) that is widely used in computing centers. Today, the advancement of technology, especially in the field of communication and information, has resulted in emergence of a new concept which is called supercomputing. It is of significant revolutions at the beginning of 21st century. In this essay, we will explain what a supercomputer is.
The key difference between a supercomputer and a PC (personal computer) is their usage. Supercomputers are built for massive data processing and complex calculations while PCs are used for usual and daily purpose. The large-scale processing tasks requires enormous processing power. Thus, a supercomputer has tens of thousands of processors that work in parallel. Such large number of processors needs much space and cost. Supercomputers usually occupy an entire room. In addition, they need special maintenance, large amount of electricity to operate and a good cooling system to dissipate heat produced by processors.
Some tasks do not need full power of a supercomputer. So, the processing power can be divided into many parts and each part, called a server, can provide service for a huge task. A server performance can be shrunk to a PC.
Advanced hardware is a basic requirement for supercomputers. They include:
CPU and GPU: Processing units are considered as heart of a supercomputer. The CPUs have to be high-performance (typically x86-based or specialized processors) with core numbers of tens to thousands per node. GPUs accelerate special types of operations. There are usually thousands of cores per GPU.
Memory: For a primary storage in computation, supercompuer needs dynamic random access memory (DRAM). DDR4 or DDR5 are usually taken. The capacity is in range of terabytes per node.
Interconnect Network: bandwidth in the range of 100 Gb/s to 400 Gb/s or higher for fast communication between nodes is required.
Storage: SSDs with the capacities of terabytes to petabytes per node are required for local storage. Network storage needs high-speed network-attached storage or parallel file systems in the range of petabytes and exabytes.
software: supercomputers operating system is specialized, mainly Linux-based OS. Manufacturers may make some changes on the operating system based on need. Software optimization has a significant role on the supercomputer performance. The too many tasks management along with parallel processing across all the nodes are the main jobs that can tangibly be noticed if the system is optimized.
Cooling systems: The powerful hardware of supercomputers produce a large amount of heat. If the heat is not dissipated, it may damage the components. Thus, powerful cooling systems are utilized to drive away megawatts of heat.
Power supply: A supercomputer consumes an enourmous amount of electricity. One single server needs 300-400 watts to operate. The total electricity consumption of a supercomputer may reach dozens of megawatts.
Today, supercomputers are employed in the majority of fields. Here, some of significant fields are introduced:
Climate change and weather research: HPC can be used to understand weather patterns and predict the effect of extreme weather events. Also, it helps us analyze land, ocean and polar glaciers.
Nuclear fusion research: To test and evaluate nuclear explosions and weapons, nuclear fusion reactors and virtual environments have to be built and simulated.
Real-time programs: When you want to play an online game, there may be plenty of users in the tournaments which increase latency or make the host server collapse. HPC can handle the big process.
Medical research and disease fighting: Machine learning algorithms and big data analysis of diseases by HPC can help medical researchers to diagnose diseases faster and treat them better, including cancer and COVID-19. Besides, for the development of new drugs, treatments for cancer and rare genetic disorders, as well as for research into the production and evolution of epidemics, HPC has a significant role.
Development of next-generation materials: Using deep learning algorithms by HPC help human identify better materials for batteries, building materials, etc. Thus, HPC helps us optimize the earth resources and reach sustainability.
Advancement in the field of artificial intelligence: HPC is used as a reliable environment to run artificial intelligence algorithms which lead to advances in natural language processing, image recognition, and many more areas.
Engineering: In analysis of large and tiny structures such as bridges, buildings, and molecules arrangement, HPC paves the way for engineers to carefully examine complex models.
Data analysis: In various industries, data analysis tools and artificial intelligence are used to extract valuable information. HPC provides them by superfast parallel processing.
Astrophysics: Simulating the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies, and the universe is something that requires HPC. Too many variables are there in the simulation such as light, gravity, positions of the objects, etc.
Raw material exploration for industry: HPC helps us find potentialities resources of materials such as oil, gas, metals, etc for industry.
Sometimes, we may need a high performance computing (HPC) system to do our occasional projects. In this case, buying a supercomputer is not a good solution because after we are done, it is not needed anymore. Thus, Renting a supercomputer would be a great idea to deal with the projects.
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