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World's Most Powerful Private Supercomputer Will Hunt Oil and Gas

Posted by samzenpus on from the black-gold dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "French oil conglomerate Total has inaugurated the world's ninth-most-powerful supercomputer, Panega. Its purpose: seek out new reservoirs of oil and gas. The supercomputer's total output is 2.3 petaflops, which should place it about ninth on today's TOP500 list, last updated in November. The announcement came as Dell and others prepare to inaugurate a new supercomputer, Stampede, in Texas on March 27. What's noteworthy about Pangea, however, is that it will be the most powerful supercomputer owned and used by private industry; the vast majority of such systems are in use by government agencies and academic institutions. Right now, the most powerful private supercomputer for commercial use is the Hermit supercomputer in Stuttgart; ranked 27th in the world, the 831.4 Tflop machine is a public-private partnership between the University of Stuttgart and hww GmbH. Panega, which will cost 60 million Euro ($77.8 million) over four years, will assist decision-making in the exploration of complex geological areas and to increase the efficiency of hydrocarbon production in compliance with the safety standards and with respect for the environment, Total said. Pangea will be will be stored at Total's research center in the southwestern French city of Pau."

9 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. 2.3 gigaflops? by shoppa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    2.3 gigaflops is on most everyone's desktop today. Maybe you mean 2.3 teraflops?

  2. Amateurs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If they really want to destroy the planet the fastest through global warming, go build a shitload of limestone quarries, and then dump the limestone in rivers. I'm sure they could get us to Venus levels in a couple of decades.

    1. Re:Amateurs by interval1066 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I couldn't care less about that nonsense. I'm waiting for the day they use this system to hunt humans. Dissenters, etc...

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
  3. Article and Summary have wrong units by fgodfrey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This has to be 2.3 *peta* FLOPS not giga FLOPS. For instance, in 2010, an Intel desktop processor could do 109 gigaFLOPS (reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS).

    --
    Go Badgers! -- #include "std/disclaimer.h"
  4. Oil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So.... why are we wasting the most powerful computer on non renewable sources of energy?
    Hunting for big oil just seems... wrong. Why cant we use this computer to find cures, track the stars, simulate atoms?

    1. Re:Oil by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's because there is plenty of food. The problem is political, not technical or economic.

  5. Re:umm? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When I saw "Panega", my first thought was "For a geological supercomputer, that's a nice pun on Pangea, isn't it?" Well, then I noticed that it's not a pun, just a typo. ;-)

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  6. Waste of computer power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oil and gas?! How about Solar? Wind? GeoThermal? LFTR/Thorium? Why are we blowing computer power on dying industries!?

    What is this?! The Freakin' Flintstones?!

    1. Re:Waste of computer power by shadowrat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oil and gas?! How about Solar? Wind? GeoThermal? LFTR/Thorium? Why are we blowing computer power on dying industries!?

      Well, it seems like a waste of computing power to use it to find those things. I mean, we already know where the sun is. We already know where it's windy.