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Japan's Petaflop Supercomputer

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the renders-a-million-tentacles-a-minute dept.

slashthedot writes "Japan has built the fastest supercomputer in the world. While the BlueGene/L contains 130,000 processors, Japan has managed to create the first Petaflop supercomputer, called MDGrape-3, with just 4808 chips, and it cost just $9 million to develop."

10 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Imagine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!

    1. Re:Imagine... by Savantissimo · · Score: 4, Funny

      >Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!

      With a side order of hot grits!
      A tip: if you can fit your message in the subject line, then do it, particularly when you /know/ that you're going to get modded down.

      I remember back when that comment would have gotten +5 "Whoa duuuuude" mods.

      Yet you can still get good mods if you say:
        "A petaflop that fits in a closet for just $9M for the first one? You could make more for a couple million, at least by the time you got your [impressive knowlegeable-sounding ultra-tech adjectives] cluster interconnect together - why not spend a quarter of a billion and push the limits of computing out another couple orders of magnitude? This thing can do protein folding, so it can likely do bomb physics and a bunch of other big-money problems that can be represented in similar math."

      Which translates to:
      "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!"

      --
      "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
  2. Wow by 9x320 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Making that computer must have been harder than getting a story from MSN posted on the main page of Slashdot!

  3. Re:Yeah by paganizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not unless that is what they are going to use to render the tentacle porn; it IS a Japanese Supercomputer, after all.
    Y'know, I have a feeling I should really post this as anonymous coward.

    --
    Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
  4. Purchasing Advice by ZachPruckowski · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will this run Vista at a decent speed, or should I wait for the Rev B and SP1?

  5. Not just a flop by davidwr · · Score: 4, Funny

    NOT what the VP of Marketing wants to hear:

    "Not just a flop, but a flop a million billion times over."

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  6. 4808 chips -- Alas, it is still bottlenecked by... by nethneta · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...its Geforce MX 420.

  7. Re:Apparent source page for device data by Traiklin · · Score: 3, Funny

    but I thought Japan already had a lot of studys on protein?

    I've seen the videos of it a few times and stumbled across entire collections of them! they call it something like bukkake.

  8. glxgears by jonathansizz · · Score: 2, Funny
    Japan has managed to create the first Petaflop supercomputer, called MDGrape-3, with just 4808 chips, and it cost just $9 million to develop.
    Wow! I bet it gets loads of fps in glxgears!
  9. Re:Singularity by DeXOR · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes, we must avoid a singularity gap!