Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

How a Supercomputer Beat the Scrap Heap and Lived On To Retire In Africa

Posted by Unknown on from the spread-the-computing dept.

New submitter jorge_salazar (3562633) writes Pieces of the decommissioned Ranger supercomputer, 40 racks in all, were shipped to researchers in South Africa, Tanzania, and Botswana to help seed their supercomputing aspirations. They say they'll need supercomputers to solve their growing science problems in astronomy, bioinformatics, climate modeling and more. Ranger's own beginnings were described by the co-founder of Sun Microsystems as a 'historic moment in petaflop computing."

1 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Really now by dissy · · Score: 5, Funny

    One of my favorite Michael Faraday stories (of which there are variants) is a visit to his lab by Prime Minister Robert Peel, during which Peel asked "what use is electricity?" Faraday replied "what use is a new-born baby?"

    As Faraday licks the BBQ sauce off his slightly burnt fingertips, answering both questions at the same time.