The Top 5 Supercomputers More Power Hungry Than Ever

[Guest]

As expected, Japans K Computer has extended its lead in the prestigious Top500 Supercomputer list.

The Top 5 Supercomputers More Power Hungry Than Ever : Read more

 

[guru_urug]

Connect them into a cluster and behold: "Skynet"

 

[PrvtChurch]

that's a lot of power. but can it run Crysis?

 

[de5_Roy]

the benchmark pcs built for fx reviews comsume more power than these supercomputers!

 

[lashabane]

Wake me up when we hit 1.21 gigawatts....

 

[gmcizzle]

But can it cool a system playing Crysis?

 

[kristoffe]

most high end power supplies for enthusiast pcs 1000-1600 watts, or 1-1.6kw, not mw

kilowatt=thousand
megawatt=million

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megawatt#Megawatt

 

[joytech22]

A Chinese CPU?
If they had a x86 license and made said architecture CPU's, I wonder how they would perform, a.k.a price/performance.
Was I the only one who asked themselves that question?

On topic now..
Damn that's a lot of power, like a power station dedicated just to the top supercomputer. :\ I wonder if indeed they did dedicate one to it.

 

[Soma42]

[citation][nom]kristoffe[/nom]most high end power supplies for enthusiast pcs 1000-1600 watts, or 1-1.6kw, not mw[/citation]

You know this isn't talking about enthusiast PCs right?

The average i7 PC is putting out around 60-70 GFlops, which is about a million times less than a PFlop...
(1 PFlop = 1000000 GFlop)

12.7 mega(yes mega)watts actually seems a bit low for 10.5 PFlops, but maybe I'm missing something

 

[alyoshka]

Haven't these guys heard of going green? I wonder what green peace is doing about this.... 12MW?????? OMG that's a whole Power Generating Units Output...... And not some small Hydroelectric power plant.... Unbelievable...
Well, this does seem more like an Enthusiast PC, only it's a very enthusiastic corp.
They alone should be held accountable for such a massive waste of electricity and it is a waste if the rigs can't use up their PCIe Bandwidth.....

 

[pasoleatis]

Yes you are missing the communications devices between the nodes which consumes equal power to the nodes and the cooling system which consumes as much as the nodes and communication together. So the actual calculations only consumes a 1/4 of the total power.

 

[pasoleatis]

[citation][nom]alyoshka[/nom]Haven't these guys heard of going green? I wonder what green peace is doing about this.... 12MW?????? OMG that's a whole Power Generating Units Output...... And not some small Hydroelectric power plant.... Unbelievable...Well, this does seem more like an Enthusiast PC, only it's a very enthusiastic corp.They alone should be held accountable for such a massive waste of electricity and it is a waste if the rigs can't use up their PCIe Bandwidth.....[/citation]

For each 1$ spent on computing for research the gain is about 10 times more saved by the results of the research.

 

[Guest]

i wonder what they're being used for?

 

[feeddagoat]

@alyoshka green peace use the supercomputers to formulate their league tables and to calculated and control their battleplans RTS game style to help fight world injustice and crimes against nature.

@Pasoleatis if only that where true. I would love to see the actual figures for that. I've been a long term folder but after a few years I've came to wonder is such projects actually producing valuable results. Not that I expect to wake up and suddenly x, y , z is cured but has folding actually improved understanding in those areas? F1 is a prime example of how moving to modelling systems can't produce the results of actually getting a car out on track and physically running the parts.

 

[Guest]

only 18W per core? what am i missing

 

[ProDigit10]

[citation][nom]hyt8[/nom]i wonder what they're being used for?[/citation]
for simulating directors and ceos (people with money) pr0n!

 

[frostmachine]

[citation][nom]32103940[/nom]only 18W per core? what am i missing[/citation]

Boards, RAMs, etc. So it's actually less than 18W per core

 

[randomizer]

[citation][nom]alyoshka[/nom]Haven't these guys heard of going green?[/citation]
You do realise that this particular supercomputer was the 6th most energy efficient as of June 2011? It's probably shuffled a few places now as it is using ~30% more power, but efficiency is about performance/watt, not just how much power is consumed.

 

[jsc]

[citation][nom]joytech22[/nom]A Chinese CPU? If they had a x86 license and made said architecture CPU's, I wonder how they would perform, a.k.a price/performance.Was I the only one who asked themselves that question?[/citation]
I didn't ask. I looked.

The SW1600 looks like it is based on the Alpha 21164
http://laotsao.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/sw1600-and-alpha-21164/
which begs the question: did the Red Chinese license or pirate the technology?

 

[dreamer77dd]

It be interesting if they were all connected together for Folding@home or World Community Grid
What the results would be and what researchers would find.

It also be interesting if they used all that computer power to make a crazy A.I system for a video game.

 

[Wolvan]

12.7 MW is NOT an entire power station's output. Get a clue. That is a small amount. Plenty of large industrial machinery takes more power to run.

I work at a commercial nuclear plant. We have 2 units. Each unit produces just under 1250 MW, for just under 2500 MW total put on the grid. Coal plants range from 500 MW to thousands of MW's also, depending on how many boilers they have.

 

[Max Collodi]

[citation][nom]hyt8[/nom]i wonder what they're being used for?[/citation]
Probably the same thing America uses their top supercomputers for; testing and monitoring their nuclear weapons.

 

[ojas]

What the hell do people keep talking about??

Can this play Crysis? Yes. That's what they built it for.

Can it cool a Crysis system?? It's a computer not a cooler dammit.

A SUPERCOMPUTER IS AN ENTHUSIAST PC???????? SERIOUSLY????

 

[f-14]

no wonder why they didn't shut down fukishima immediately
famous last words of a japanese super computer operator: "wait wait we need to do a proper shut down of our super computer, just hold on, it will only take 3 days..."

 

[de5_Roy]

can these supercomputers play farmville with 16x aa and high details? can they? ;D