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IBM Building 20 Petaflop Computer For the US Gov't

Posted by timothy on from the because-the-nsa-hates-drm dept.

eldavojohn writes "When it's built, 'Sequoia' will outshine every super computer on the top 500 list today. The specs on this 96 rack beast are a bit hard to comprehend as it consists of 1.6 million processors and some 1.6TB of memory. That's 1.6 million processors — not cores. Its purpose? Primarily to keep track of nuclear waste & simulate explosions of nuclear munitions, but also for research into astronomy, energy, the human genome, and climate change. Hopefully the government uses this magnificent tool wisely when it gets it in 2012."

21 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. and just for old time's sake... by Hell+O'World · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can you imagine a Beowolf cluster of those?

    1. Re:and just for old time's sake... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Can you imagine a Beowolf cluster of those?

      No. No I can't. I can't imagine a beowolf cluster of one those. Even if Natalie Portman (covered in grits) was in my base killing my overlords like an insensitive clod. Even if netcraft confirmed it, then it confirmed netcraft in soviet russia. Especially if Cowboy Neal gave me a three step plan leading to profit I could not imagine it.

      Enough with the meme. Or not, because I must be new here.

    2. Re:and just for old time's sake... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      you mean Crysis

    3. Re:and just for old time's sake... by ed.mps · · Score: 5, Funny

      damn you AC, this post deserves a +50 "beowulf cluster of memes"

      --
      !sig
    4. Re:and just for old time's sake... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      It will run Duke Nukem Forever on Vista!

    5. Re:and just for old time's sake... by porky_pig_jr · · Score: 2, Funny

      In Soviet Russia a beowulf cluster of those imagines you.

  2. Mmm... by Taibhsear · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nice rack(s).

  3. OH NOES!!! by Darundal · · Score: 3, Funny

    2012! Supercomputer! It's Skynet! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

    1. Re:OH NOES!!! by GiovanniZero · · Score: 5, Funny

      At 6:18 pm EST IBM's super computer went online At 6:19 pm EST IBM's super computer declared nuclear war on humans At 6:20 pm EST there was a SEG FAULT and skynet must reboot to continue genocide

      --
      Mod me up, mod me down, do your worst you modding clown.
  4. Oh, yes. by AltGrendel · · Score: 4, Funny

    And also to find the question that "42" answers.
    There are many theories as to what this question might be, and now IBM is building a system that will solve this issue once and for all.

    --
    The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination

    - Douglas Adams

    1. Re:Oh, yes. by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Funny

      No, no. It's being used to calculate the new national debt.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Oh, yes. by ukbazza · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, no. It's being used to calculate the new national debt.

      They're going to need a bigger computer.

    3. Re:Oh, yes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      That's just your theory.

  5. at least they admit its true purpose by khuber · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The system will also act as a giant weather cock,"

    1. Re:at least they admit its true purpose by v1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Primarily to keep track of nuclear waste

      And this can't be done with say, Excel?

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  6. don't smell right by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 3, Funny

    Each processor gets its own megabyte of memory? Are these a bunch of refurb pcs from the late 80's?

    --
    Do you have ESP?
  7. Re:2012? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

    A group of computer scientists build the world's most powerful computer. Let us call it "HyperThought." HyperThought is massively parallel, it contains neural networks, it has teraflop speed., etc. The computer scientists give HyperThought a shakedown run. It easily computes Pi to 10000 places, and factors a 100 digit number. The scientists try find a difficult question that may stump it. Finally, one scientist exclaims: "I know!" "HyperThought," she asks "is there a God?" "There is now," replies the computer.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  8. flops not flop by iYk6 · · Score: 5, Funny

    flops = floating point operation per second
    flop = Gigli

    The article got it mostly right. It mentioned 500-teraflop once, but every other time it spelled flops correctly. Slashdot, on the other hand, fucked up the title, despite the fact that it pretty much just copied it from the article (poorly).

  9. so they can play raytraced quake mods by sgt+scrub · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hopefully the government uses this magnificent tool wisely when it gets it in 2012.

    Sounds like they are going to port the quake mods to the raytrace q4 engine.

    --
    Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
  10. Fixed if for ya by Metabolife · · Score: 2, Funny

    "...allowing forecasters to create local weather "events" less than one kilometer across, compared with 10 kilometers today and at speeds up to 40 times faster than current systems."

  11. Re:Processors, not cores by MightyYar · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, but how many CPUs is that?

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.