What is the Largest Supercomputer Ever Built?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the announcement of the largest supercomputer ever built, known as "Ranger," which is set to be hosted at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. Participants explore its specifications, potential applications, and humorous takes on its capabilities.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant notes the supercomputer's specifications, including 62,976 CPU cores and 504 teraflops of performance.
  • Several participants make light-hearted comments about the supercomputer's potential for gaming, suggesting it could play games like Pac-Man and chess effectively.
  • Another participant humorously questions the supercomputer's ability to run modern games like Crysis at high frame rates.
  • One participant expresses interest in using the supercomputer for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.
  • A humorous remark is made about the possibility of the IT department only providing a slow internet connection, such as a 56k modem.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

The discussion features a mix of technical specifications and humorous commentary, with no consensus on the serious capabilities of the supercomputer in gaming or other applications.

Contextual Notes

Participants do not delve into the technical limitations or specific applications of the supercomputer beyond general comments and humor.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in supercomputing, high-performance computing applications, or those looking for a light-hearted take on technology discussions.

wolram
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http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/06/sun_supercomputer

There's an old saying: "Everything's bigger in Texas."

That now applies to supercomputers as well.

Sun Microsystems announced today that its hardware will power the largest supercomputer ever built, weighing in with 62,976 CPU cores, 125 terabytes of memory, 1.7 petabytes of disk space, and 504 teraflops of performance.

The computer, which has been dubbed "Ranger," will be hosted at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas, Austin. It is due to go online on January 1, 2008
 
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Sounds like a really fast way to play Pac-Man.
 
I'll bet it can play chess really well too.
 
Can it play Crysis at 60 fps?
 
nah i bet it can only manage 10 with that gfx card. [Sarcasim]
 
I'd love to run a few micro-channel cfd simulations on that beast.
 
It would be funny if the IT people only put in a 56k modem.