Japan computer smashes speed record

Sounds like this article was written for children, not a science website.

how many hertz are 10 quadrillion calculations per second.

quadrillion is 10^24 or 10^15 ??

90 Billion (Giga?)Flops per core? A bit less than an unclocked Intel 980X.

how many hertz are 10 quadrillion calculations per second.

Since it's massively parallel that question doesn't make much sense.

Japan should close down all its nuclear powerplants, large parts of Japan are radioactive now (just another record breaking nuclear disaster). We know what devastating effect a tsunami had on a nuclear powerplant, and NO supercomputer (no matter how many zillion flops/sec) would have been able to "calculate" this event.

Use this "K" computer for solar cell efficiency optimization and cost reduction of solar cell production.

Japan should close down all its nuclear powerplants, large parts of Japan are radioactive now (just another record breaking nuclear disaster). We know what devastating effect a tsunami had on a nuclear powerplant, and NO supercomputer (no matter how many zillion flops/sec) would have been able to "calculate" this event.

Use this "K" computer for solar cell efficiency optimization and cost reduction of solar cell production.

Killed a lot less people than German organic food did. I think we should ban organic food first, then look at the lower risks from nuclear.

http://www.washin...agebreak

Use this "K" computer for solar cell efficiency optimization and cost reduction of solar cell production.

Better yet, use it to come up with a cheap, scalable, efficient battery in the megawatt-hour range to make existing solar panels actually useful.

Without batteries, there's no amount of solar power that will power your home when the sun don't shine.

To give you a hit of the scale of the problem at hand, the average Japanese will use roughly 8500 kWh each year, which is equivalent to one full charge of a Nissan Leaf, per day, per person.

And you only have about four hours each day when the solar panels work their best. The rest of the time the power has to come from somewhere else.

You know, it's just a really powerful calculator. It's not going to solve Japan's energy problem by itself. If you wanted to use it for solar research, you'd need a program that could find an optimized solar cell structure. However, there's so many parameters involved with this that the computing part is a small portion of the work.

These computers are best at simulating physical processes for which the parameters are already somewhat known. If there was a solar cell design that needed to be tested, it could help with that. However, given that solar cells are relatively quite simple, those kinds of simulations could be done a desktop. Nuclear research would be a much better candidate for simulation. If Japan invested in a new line of safe, efficient reactors (TWR's), they could solve their energy problems for the next century.

where's blue waters? They said they'd have their at least part photonic supercomputer up and running by last summer!

http://en.wikiped...e_Waters

Well, that wiki does mention some kind of problem of funding.

90 Billion (Giga?)Flops per core? A bit less than an unclocked Intel 980X.

1000 teraflops is a LOT more than 90 gigaflops. What the devil is an unclocked computer? I know there were experimental asynchronous machines built in the 1960's, which failed, but all modern computers are clocked. Did you mean overclocked by chance?

large parts of Japan are radioactive now

Wow...

We know what devastating effect a tsunami had on a nuclear powerplant, and NO supercomputer (no matter how many zillion flops/sec) would have been able to "calculate" this event.

What kind of a point do you think you are making here? I'm 90% certain it is either non-existent or ridiculous.

quadrillion is 10^24 or 10^15 ??

10^15... 10^24 is also known as quadrillion but less frequently used and would be too large a jump to be believable.

We know what devastating effect a tsunami had on a nuclear powerplant,

Most damage was done by preceding earthquakes, the tsunami might have accelerated the problem by only a tiny bit, the building was build for warding against tsunamis, the tsunami alone would have done no damage at all. In fact the tsunami might have helped the fuel rods from melting down in the first place.

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Killed a lot less people than German organic food did

The article was propaganda, that food did not come from Germany, it came from Spain and the seeds from the feed were imported from Greece. It was a european problem, not just Germany. The seeds from Greece were infected with bacteria.

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We need more comparable data from this article, How much flops per watt? How much flops per surface area?

I can put two supercomputers together into one project and claim its the fastest "supercomputer" in the world.

The article sounds like it was written for simple.wikipedia.org

AFP wrote this. A French version of AP/UPI. How would I know something this trivial? Because these are the same yahoos who wrote that "Elvis in the Testicles" article the other day. It was so bad, I actually looked up the source. hehe

"Killed a lot less people than German organic food did." - LVT

Poor LVT, he is reduced to posting blithering nonsense from the Washignton Times. The money losing newspaper run by the Loonie Moonies.

When it comes to news and opinion given a choice between the Moonie times and the National Enquiror, it would be wise to select the National Enquiror as it has a better track record.

But LVT is a Consrvative Libertarian, and he will post any lie as long as it advances his sick political ideology.

How do we know that LVT is lying by referring to a source - the Washington (Moonie) Times - that is itself lying?

The Moonies claim that the European E-coli outbreak was a result of bean sprouts grown at an organic farm.

But from a reputable source - CBC Canada - we read...

"German officials announced Monday that initial tests show sprouts from an organic farm in the country's north are not the cause of the E. coli outbreak as first suspected." - CBC

http://www.cbc.ca...any.html

Now the CBC story appeared on June 6, 2011.
The Moonies false claim was printed on June 8, 2011.

So the Moonies persisted on blaming organic bean sprouts from a German farm days after those sprouts were tested and found to be the source of the e-coli.

I have NEVER encountered a Libertarian/Randite who wasn't a perpetual and congenital liar.

"Without batteries, there's no amount of solar power that will power your home when the sun don't shine." - Ekka

Just pump it into the grid.

Re: "Unclocked"

Like most Libertarian/Randites LVT isn't very bright, and he intended to say "unlocked" rather than "unclocked".

But even if he had used the word "unlocked", his comment about 90 billion gigaflops per core shows that he lives in the city of TardPrime on the imaginary planet of Libertaria.

A quadrillion is 10 ** 15 flops or 10 ** 6 gigaflops.

This makes the Japanese computer at 20 * 10 ** 6 gigaflops about 8 times faster then the next on the top 50 supercomputer list, which comes in at 2.5 * 10 ** 6 gigaflops and is located in Tianjin China.

I don't tolerate chronic Liars.

Why do you?

10^15... 10^24 is also known as quadrillion but less frequently used and would be too large a jump to be believable.

To avoid confusion we should make the words distinct. One system would use the words million, abillion, atrillion, aquadrillion etc., and the other system would use million, milliard, ebillion, billiard, etrillion, trilliard etc.

To make the forms easy to remember, the a indicates the American usage and the e indicates the European usage. Not that the usage is necessarily uniform on each continent, but it's distinct enough to make the letters easy to remember. I'm sorry if other continents feel left out, but all continents except Europe begin with an A, and, really, the letter isn't supposed to mean anything, it's just chosen as a memory help.

For consistency we might say emilliard rather than milliard, etrilliard rather than trilliard, etc. Here it's not needed for disambiguation, but maybe it sound better when it's consistent.

Why reinvent what science has already decided upon?

SI prefix list.

http://www.unitar...prefixes

I'm Yotta here.

Why reinvent what science has already decided upon?

SI prefix list.

http://www.unitar...prefixes

I'm Yotta here.

You do notice that there is both a "long scale" and a "short scale" defined there right? That is what we are talking about...

how many hertz are 10 quadrillion calculations per second.

Since it's massively parallel that question doesn't make much sense.

I meant, what is quadrillion :))
I know what is hertz :P

Most damage was done by preceding earthquakes, the tsunami might have accelerated the problem by only a tiny bit, the building was build for warding against tsunamis, the tsunami alone would have done no damage at all. In fact the tsunami might have helped the fuel rods from melting down in the first place.

?? The tsunami flooded the bldgs and took out the backup generators which would have prevented overheating. However the cores and spent fuel pools were not accessible by floodwater.

You like to make stuff up just so you have something to post?

how many hertz are 10 quadrillion calculations per second.

Since it's massively parallel that question doesn't make much sense.

I meant, what is quadrillion :))
I know what is hertz :P

Yeah, but he meant that clock frequency is an almost irrelevant measure of performance when you're talking about SMP systems. The frequency of each processor core is only a small determining factor in overall performance of the machine... the most significant factor is efficiency and organization of the data bus network that facilitates communication between each processor and each bank of memory.

Hertz is a measure of oscillations per second. Oscillations per second and calculations per second are quite different things, you can't make any direct conversion. The processor clock inputs oscillate at one frequency, the internal clocks have other frequencies, each core makes several calculations simultaneously during each internal clock cycle, each calculation takes several clock cycles, there are more than 88,000 cores working in parallel... Disjoint concepts.

As for quadrillion:

1,000,000 = one million
1,000,000,000 = one abillion
1,000,000,000,000 = one atrillion
1,000,000,000,000,000 = one aquadrillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = one aquintillion
...etc...

1,000,000 = one million
1,000,000,000 = one emilliard
1,000,000,000,000 = one ebillion
1,000,000,000,000,000 = one ebilliard
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = one etrillion
...etc...

But the a- and e- prefixes (or prefices if you like your words nerdy) are my own invention and shouldn't be considered standard. Not yet. :-)

"That is what we are talking about..." - Choll

That isn't what the post I was responding to was talking about.

Please try and keep up.

As to the discussion you are referring to.

I refer you to the same link which makes any "discussion" pointless.

http://www.unitar...prefixes

I meant, what is quadrillion :))
I know what is hertz :P

A quadrillion is 10 to the 24th. This shoul however not be construed to mean that there is a chip (or system) capable of making 1 calculation in 1 over 10 to the 24th seconds.

The individual chips are much slower than that (by a factor of more than 88000 times the number of cores in each unit).

Hertz is a measure of frequency (as you know). But the computer is not running at 1 over 10 to the 24th Hertz because of the massive paralleism.

What I meant was: If two people tap on a table at 1hz each then the 'tapping frequency of the two-people system' is not 2Hz.

"That is what we are talking about..." - Choll

That isn't what the post I was responding to was talking about.

Please try and keep up.

As to the discussion you are referring to.

I refer you to the same link which makes any "discussion" pointless.

http://www.unitar...prefixes

/scratches head...

You're link shows the difference between the long and the short scales... that is what we all were talking about... I think you missed the boat somewhere along the line. Yes, SI prefixes are what they are, but the long scale is what it is as well, as is the short scale... you're just suggesting we all agree to use one of the three... well great, big deal, I'd like it if all humans spoke the same language and had kilometer/hour speedometers in their car as well, what's you're point?

Back to your picture book CHollman, this is all a bit too hard for you to cope with until you grow up. Try not to use the term 'we' when you are speaking for yourself. I'd like it if mentally deficient people like yourself, were culled out at birth as a priority over a common language but hey .. maybe this new super fast computer will find a way to solve these problems.

Hopefully this supercomputer is used for reasons other than guessing answers (or questions) for TV game shows or playing chess.

Ok 10 Petaflops achieved... by a couyple of months we will hear 20 to 50 Petaflops. By that i mean "Sequoia" from IBM and "Titan" from Cray with the XE 6.

Back to your picture book CHollman, this is all a bit too hard for you to cope with until you grow up. Try not to use the term 'we' when you are speaking for yourself. I'd like it if mentally deficient people like yourself, were culled out at birth as a priority over a common language but hey .. maybe this new super fast computer will find a way to solve these problems.

Hopefully this supercomputer is used for reasons other than guessing answers (or questions) for TV game shows or playing chess.

I don't know what the fuck you're talking about other than that you're using an opportunity to insult me as you always do. I have a masters in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and I work as firmware engineer with a company that makes fiber optic test and measurement equipment for public and private organizations worldwide...

I don't know what the fuck you're talking about other ..

I understand. Its a bit hard for you to grasp anything beyond simple concepts. Perhaps you forget that you drew first blood and as I repeat .. I can hold a grudge indefinitely.

You belittle and insult others and seem to think that its okay and yet when the tables are turned you don't much like it.

Even in the past few hours you have told people that they are ignorant, that they have no understanding of the subject matter, that they should educate themselves etc etc and as far as I can tell it is you that have these characteristics. About that mirror ..

In a pissing contest over academic qualifications I would win by a light year but I'll skip that because its you that need to massage your ego, not me.

Regardless, the construction of this new supercomputer is a good technical achievement and as you say 'the most significant factor is efficiency and organization of the data ...'.

I can hold a grudge indefinitely.

That sounds like a personal problem.

I am done indulging your childish antics.

Certainly your mental problems outweigh any personal problems I might have. It is you that choose to continue this nonsense.

Try to stop insulting others (and I will avoid striking at your sockpuppets and bum chums). Back up your contradictions with references. Stop suggesting that you have a monopoly on the truth and generally have tolerance of differing points of view. Perhaps get a sense of humour too.

Then we will get along just fine.

and I will avoid striking at your sockpuppets

I have no AE's on this site...

Stop suggesting that you have a monopoly on the truth

When I say 1 plus 1 equals 2 I will claim that to be the truth.

I am sorry you can't see that what I call truth is equally truthful as that is.

Or do you not believe in formal logic? If I were to tell you that:

If A then B, A therefore B

would you argue that I was claiming a monopoly on truth?

Truth exists.
Truth can be known in given contexts.
Truth may or may not be knowable in the universal context.

Personally, I don't believe that universal truth is knowable, but contextual truth is ABSOLUTELY knowable, to claim otherwise is to deny logic.

In my personal experiential context the cup I am using is red insomuch as my perception of that cup is correlated to my conceptual understanding of the word "red".

"My cup is red" is a true statement given the above context.

Go ahead and object to my monopolistic claim on truth.

Some loser with 5 or 6 different accounts has nothing better to do than down vote all of my posts with all of his accounts. He has been doing this for a while now, it probably gives him reason enough to go another day without killing himself. I am glad I can help some depressed miserable person find a reason to continue living.

"Without batteries, there's no amount of solar power that will power your home when the sun don't shine." - Ekka

Just pump it into the grid.

And pray tell how would that help?

@Eikka

"How would it help?" - Eikka

Foolish. First define the problem.

The problem in the context being discussed here is energy availability in a carbon fuel reduced world.

Every erg of energy produced from non-fossil sources - no matter the source - can be used to offset the consumption of fossil fuels.

The fact is, that Solar need not power the the current requirements of a home as the home requests it. The energy production can be deferred by using the grid to offset consumption of coal, oil, and natural gas for fuel in conventional generating plants while PV electric power is produced.

So the home may produce 5 KWh of electric power during the day but only need those 5 KWh at night. So you pump the power generated during the day into the grid - offsetting other methods of production - and suck it back out again at night from whatever generating sources there are operating at that time.

The perpetual failure is to believe that any one method of generating power cont..

be the only method used. This is a foolish assumption.

There will be many methods of generation employed, including fossil for a time - while it lasts. So the other sources will provide power at night and solar during the daylight hours.

It isn't rocket science. But some people just refuse to comprehend because reality doesn't mesh with their preferred and typically deluded world view.