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Low Energy Supercomputing

Posted by samzenpus on from the on-a-dime dept.

Faith Singer at TACC writes "The term 'supercomputing' usually evokes images of large, expensive computer systems that calculate unfathomable algorithms and run on enough energy to support a small city. Now, imagine a supercomputer, but run on the electrical equivalent of three standard-size coffee-makers. This year's international supercomputing conference, SC10, will feature the Student Cluster Competition that challenges students to build, maintain, and run the most-cutting edge, commercially available high-performance computing (HPC) architectures on just 26 amps."

5 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Energy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Power is now called energy, and is measured in amps? No one told me...

  2. Give them Watts, not Amps. by snspdaarf · · Score: 0, Redundant

    26 amps at 350kV?

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  3. Re:I hope they're smarter than the article writer by MozeeToby · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Only problem is that the Ampere is a unit of CURRENT, not energy. It's like saying someone weighs 686 Newtons.

    Wait... what? Newtons are a unit of force, weight is force due to gravity. Maybe you meant that it's like saying something weighs X kg or something masses X Newtons?

  4. Re:Mmm... caffeine. by RebootKid · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Oh for mod points

  5. Units! by MiddleHitter · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Amps are units of current.
    Volts are units of potential energy.
    Watts are units of power.
    Joules are units of energy.

    I expect better from Slashdot editors; this is absolutely fundamental knowledge for a geek.

    --
    I don't fear computers, I fear the lack of them. -I. Asimov