Scientists Say: Supercomputer – Science News for Students
The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (some components pictured) recently broke the record for world’s fastest computer.
Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
By
A supercomputer is a very fast computer. That is, it can do a huge number of calculations per second. Supercomputers are so fast because they are made up of many processing units. These include central processing units, or CPUs. They can also include graphics processing units, or GPUs. Those processors work together to solve problems much faster than a typical home computer could.
“You may have one CPU, or at most two CPUs in a normal home computer,” says Justin Whitt. “And you usually have one GPU.” Whitt is a computational scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The world’s fastest supercomputer is Frontier. It’s housed at Oak Ridge. There, tens of thousands of processors are stored in cabinets about as big as refrigerators. “They take up an area about the size of a basketball court,” says Whitt. He is Frontier’s project director. In total, Frontier weighs about as much as two Boeing 747 jets, Whitt says. And all that hardware can do more than 1 million million million calculations per second.
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Supercomputers like Frontier don’t have screens. People who want to use the machine’s vast computing power access it remotely, Whitt says. “They use their screen on their laptop to interact with the supercomputer.”
Some of the world’s other top supercomputers are also housed at U.S. national labs. Others are based at research centers in Japan, China and Europe. Many home computers can even be connected to form “virtual” supercomputers. One example is Folding@home. That vast network of computers runs models of proteins. Those models help researchers study diseases.
Supercomputers are often used to tackle problems in science. Their mega computing power lets them model very complex systems. That number-crunching can be used to develop new drugs. Or it can help design new materials to make better batteries or buildings. Such high-speed machines are also used to explore quantum physics, climate change and more.
You might never have seen a supercomputer in person. But you may have tapped into this technology from afar. Some of these machines power supersmart artificial intelligence programs. Those include the AI systems behind virtual assistants, such as Siri and Alexa, and self-driving cars. “That’s one way you see supercomputers in daily life,” Whitt says.
Supercomputers run models of complex interactions — such as those in quantum physics — that normal computers could not handle.
Check out the full list of Scientists Say.
artificial intelligence: A type of knowledge-based decision-making exhibited by machines or computers. The term also refers to the field of study in which scientists try to create machines or computer software capable of intelligent behavior.
attention: The phenomenon of focusing mental resources on a specific object or event.
climate: The weather conditions that typically exist in one area, in general, or over a long period.
climate change: Long-term, significant change in the climate of Earth. It can happen naturally or in response to human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests.
develop: To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size, mental maturity or sometimes even shape. (as with towns) The conversion of wildland to host communities of people. This development can include the building of roads, homes, stores, schools and more. Usually, trees and grasslands are cut down and replaced with structures or landscaped yards and parks.
mega: A prefix for units of measurement meaning million in the international metric system.
model: A simulation of a real-world event (usually using a computer) that has been developed to predict one or more likely outcomes. Or an individual that is meant to display how something would work in or look on others.
physics: The scientific study of the nature and properties of matter and energy. Classical physics is an explanation of the nature and properties of matter and energy that relies on descriptions such as Newton’s laws of motion. Quantum physics, a field of study that emerged later, is a more accurate way of explaining the motions and behavior of matter. A scientist who works in such areas is known as a physicist.
processor: (in computing) Also called a central processing unit, or CPU, it’s a part of the computer that performs numerical calculations or other types of data manipulation. It can also be a type of software, or programming, that translates some other program into a form that can be understood by the computer running it.
protein: A compound made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. Among the better-known, stand-alone proteins are the hemoglobin (in blood) and the antibodies (also in blood) that attempt to fight infections. Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.
quantum: (pl. quanta) A term that refers to the smallest amount of anything, especially of energy or subatomic mass.
quantum physics: A branch of physics that uses quantum theory to explain or predict how a physical system will operate on the scale of atoms or sub-atomic particles.
self-driving car: Also known as a driverless car or autonomous vehicle. These cars pilot themselves based on instructions that have been programmed into their computer guidance system.
simulation: (v. simulate) An analysis, often made using a computer, of some conditions, functions or appearance of a physical system. A computer program would do this by using mathematical operations that can describe the system and how it might change over time or in response to different anticipated situations.
sophisticated: A term for something that is advanced, complex and/or elegant.
system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body’s circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation’s railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done.
unit: (in measurements) A unit of measurement is a standard way of expressing a physical quantity. Units of measure provide context for what numerical values represent and so convey the magnitude of physical properties. Examples include inches, kilograms, ohms, gauss, decibels, kelvins and nanoseconds.
virtual: Being almost like something. An object or concept that is virtually real would be almost true or real — but not quite. The term often is used to refer to something that has been modeled by (or accomplished by) a computer using numbers, not by using real-world parts. So a virtual motor would be one that could be seen on a computer screen and tested by computer programming (but it wouldn’t be a three-dimensional device made from metal). (in computing) Things that are performed in or through digital processing and/or the internet. For instance, a virtual conference may be where people attended by watching it over the internet.
Maria Temming is the assistant editor at Science News for Students. She has bachelor’s degrees in physics and English, and a master’s in science writing.
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