TheSupercomputer

ByLiamDavie

Tuteur:TomGoedert

Classe:5G2

DavieLiam 5G2

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ContentsTheSupercomputer................................................................................................................................0

Introduction.......................................................................................................................................2

1Computer........................................................................................................................................2

1.1Theprocessor...........................................................................................................................2

1.2Randomaccessmemory...........................................................................................................4

1.3GraphicsCard/GraphicsProcessingUnit..................................................................................7

1.4Storage.....................................................................................................................................8

1.5Themotherboard/mainboard..................................................................................................9

1.6Bottleneck..............................................................................................................................10

1.7Overclocking...........................................................................................................................10

1.8Thelifespanofacomputer.....................................................................................................11

2Supercomputer..............................................................................................................................12

2.1Howdoesasupercomputerwork?........................................................................................12

2.2Usesforsupercomputers.......................................................................................................13

2.3Supercomputerspecs.............................................................................................................14

2.4Smallsupercomputerlist........................................................................................................15

2.5QuantumSupercomputers.....................................................................................................17

WordExplanations...........................................................................................................................18

Conclusion........................................................................................................................................18

Sources.............................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction

ThisTraPeisaboutsupercomputersandhowtheyarebuiltandhowtheywork.HereIwillalsobe

comparingthemtonormaldesktopcomputers. Iwillalsoexplaingeneraldesktopcomputers first.

Sometimeswordsmaybeusedthatarenotproperlyexplaineduntilalittlelater,soifyouwonder

lateronwhatawordmeans,donotworryit’sprobablygoingtobeexplainedeventually.Ichosethis

subjectbecauseIamveryinterestedincomputersandcoding.Ialsowanttobeasoftwareengineer

whenIgrowupandfinishschool.

1Computer

A computer ismadeof several components. Each componentwith its ownpurpose. It is called a

computer since it computes bits of information. You could probably call it an overly complicated

calculator.ThefirstcomputerthatislikethemachinesweknowascomputerstodaywastheENIAC

(ElectronicNumerical IntegratorandComputer)built in1946.Itwasthesizeofaroom.Eversince

then,computertechnologyhasbeenrapidlyadvancing.

1.1Theprocessor

The processor a.k.a. CPU (central processing unit) is themost important part of the computer; it

computesalltheuser’sinputandistheso-calledbrainofthecomputer.TheCPU’sclock(thenumber

ofcyclestheCPUcandopersecond)speedismeasuredinHz.Hzisameasurementusedtodescribe

thenumberoftimesacycleorprocessisrepeatedeverysecond(100/sec=100Hz).

Mostmodern CPUs have speeds that surpass 4 GHz/4 billion Hz. But CPU speed does notmean

everythingwhenitcomestoprocessingpower.WhatplaysabigroleinthisisCPUefficiency.Youcan

haveafastCPUbutthatdoesnotmatterifitneedsmorecyclestosolveaproblemcomparedtoone

with lower speed but higher efficiency.

Thismeansitismoreaboutgettingmore

done per clock cycle than having more

cycles. The way a CPU is built and put

togethereffectstheefficiencyandspeed.

Another important part is the size of a

processor’s transistors. Most modern

CPUshavetransistorsaroundthesizeof5-

14nm.Thesmallerparts,themorepower

efficientaCPUis.So,bymakingtheparts

smaller,onecannotonlycrammoreinbutalsomakeitmorepowerefficient.

Figure1:ImageofanIntelCPU

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ACPUdoesnotconstantlyrunwiththeexactsameclockspeed.Theclockspeedwilladjusttothe

amountofworktheprocessorhasto.OftenwhenlookingatthespecsofaCPU,youwillsee“base

clock”and“boostclock”.Theexactwordsmayvarybutthekeywordsare“base”and“boost”.The

baseclockistheminimumspeedtheprocessorwillberunningat,sonomatterwhatitisdoingitwill

alwaysatleastberunningatbaseclockfrequency.Theprocessorraisesorlowersitsclockspeedbased

onitsworkload.Thismeansthatboostclockistheclockitwillrunatwhenithastohandlealotor

complicatedtasks.

1.1.1 CPUcache

Note:Memoryisexplainedinalaterchapter

TheCPUalsohasitsownmemorycache.Thismemorycachecontainsinstructions,andproblemsfor

theCPUtoexecuteandsolve.WhilethismemorycacheoftenonlyhasasizeofafewMegabytes,it’s

extremelyfast.Thismemoryisdividedintomultiplelevels:Level1(L1),Level2(L2)andLevel3(L3).

Figure2:Depictionofmemorysequence

TheL3cacheistheslowestoutofthethreelevelsbutithasthelargestcapacity.Datagoesfromthe

L3cachetotheL2whichisfasterbuthaslessmemorycapacity.FromtheL2cacheitgoestoL1which

isthefastestbutisoftenonlyafewKilobytes(rarely1-2Megabytes)insize.TheCPUisdividedinto

processingcores.TheL1cachecontainsdataandinstructionsthatthecoreislikelytoneednext.

1.1.1.1L1

UnliketheL2andL3cache,theL1cacheisdividedintotwosections,L1iandL1d.

L1icontainsinstructionsforacorewhileL1dcontainsdatathatthecoreneeds.Theinstructionstell

thecorewhatitneedstocompute/calculatewhilethedatasectionistheelementthatiscalculated.

EachcorehasitsownL1cache.

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1.1.1.2Corecachepriorities

Whenacoreneedsdataorinstructions,itfirstlooksintheL1cache,ifitdoesnotfindanythingthere

itlooksintheL2cache,andthentheL3cache.TheniftheCPUstilldoesnotgetthedataitneeds,it

looks in theRAM(RandomAccessMemory).The flowofdata fromtheRAMtotheCPUcaches is

controlledbythememorycontrolleronthemainboard/motherboard.Receivinginformationfromthe

RAMtakesfarlongerthanitdoesforitsLcaches.

1.1.2Cores

AcoreisthepartoftheCPUdoingthecalculating.AsinglecorecontainsALU(ArithmeticLogicUnit)

and has access to an L1 cache. The ALU does arithmetic calculations, so addition, subtraction,

multiplicationanddivision.WhileacoreisfarmorecomplicatedthanIdescribeithere,Ipersonally

do not think that it is necessary to document it at this level of precision. There are a few other

controllersinitaswellthatcontroltheflowofdataandinstructions.Theprocessesinformationusing

logicgates.

1.1.3Multithreading

MultithreadingiswhenacoreofaCPUdividesitsattentionbetweentwotasks.Youcouldcompareit

tomultitasking.Youcanalsocallitparallelprocessing;thenamespeaksforitselfmeaningitrunstwo

processesinparallelonasinglecore.

1.1.4LogicgatesNote:Transistorsareexplainedlater.

Transistorsareusedincomputersystemstoformlogicgatesandothermechanisms.Thereareafew

typesoflogicgatesbuttheideabehinditisthatitonlyletsinformationflowthroughitifacertain

conditionisfulfilled.Alogicgatehasinputlanes,andoutputlanes.Forinstance,theANDgate,only

outputs1ifbothofitsinputsarealso1.Logicgatesareusedtoperformcalculationsandgenerally

dictatetheflowofdata.

1.2Randomaccessmemory

Note:Bitsareexplainedlaterinthechapter:“Storage”

Random accessmemory a.k.a. RAM, ismemory like the CPU ‘s cache but in comparison it has a

significantlylargerstoragecapacitythantheCPUcache.ItisalsoalotslowerthantheCPUcache.RAM

isoftenalsoreferredtoasjustmemory.

Ramhasseveralspeedindicators.ThefirstisitsDDRtype.ModernDDRisoftenreferredtoassimply

DDR4(Double-DataRate4).OldertypeslikeDDR3orDDR2alsoexistbuttheyareslowercomparedto

DDR4.RAMalsohasaclockspeedorfrequencymeasuredinMHz.NEWERRAMtypeslikeDDR4can

operateathigherfrequenciesthantheoldertypesofDDR.Itsminimumspeedis1600MHzwhilethe

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maximumis3200MHz.ThequalityofRAMina

computer can affect theCPU’s performance.

Meaning if you have slow RAM, there is a

chance that theCPU isnot runningas fast it

could be due to the RAM not being able to

keepupwiththeCPU.ModernOS’(Operating

System) like windows 10 need an absolute

minimumof4GBofRAMtobeabletorun.

The twomost popular typesof RAMare SRAMandDRAM. SRAMmeaning Static Random-Access

Memory is faster but farmore expensive compared toDRAM.DRAMmeaningDynamic Random-

AccessMemory,isslowerthanSRAMbutitischeaperandthemostcommontypeofRAM.RAMstores

datainmemorycellsthatcanstoreonbitofmemory,eithera1ora0.Thewaydataisstoredwith

SRAMdiffersfromDRAM.

SRAMuses6 transistors to formamemorycell tostoreonebit.With this systemSRAMuses less

powertomaintainitsstoreddataforalongerperiod.CPUcachesareoftenSRAMsincetheyneedto

beveryfast.

DRAMusesacombinationofacapacitorandatransistortoformacell.Thistypeofcelldrawsmore

powerwhenitisnotbeingaccessed.DRAMhasmorepotentialformorestoringspacecomparedto

SRAMsinceitscellsaremuchsmaller.

AnothertypeofRAMthatisnotverycommonatallisnon-volatileRAM.UnlikeconventionalRAM,

non-volatileRAMcanstoreinformationwithouttherebeinganeedforpowertobeappliedtoit.

1.2.1Transistors

Atransistorisasmallelectroniccomponent.Itsfunctionsasanon

andoffswitchforelectricalcurrentsbutitalsoworksasacurrent

amplifier. A typical transistor has three terminal points: The

emitter,collector,andbase.Thewayitworksisquitesimple,the

electricityflowsfromthecollectortotheemitter.Theelectricity

canonlyflowifthereisacurrentinthebaseof0.7volts.Thisis

knownasanNPNtransistor.

Figure3:ImageofRAMsticks

Figure 4: Image that shows how NPNtransistorswork

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Another variant is the PNP transistor. Here the electricity can only flow from the emitter to the

collector if thedifference incurrentvoltagebetweentheemitterandthebase isgreater than0.7

volts.

1.2.2Capacitors

Acapacitorworkslikeasmallrechargeablebatterythatcanquicklydischargeallitsstoredelectricity.

Acapacitorismadeupof2metallicplateswithanon-conductingmaterialinbetween.Byapplyinga

voltagetobothplates,apositivechargewillgatherononeplatewhileanegativeonegathersonthe

other.Capacitorsadividedintotwomaintypes,polarisedandnon-polarised.

Apolarisedcapacitorhasapositiveandnegativesidewhichmeansyoumustplacethepositiveside

wherethemostpositivevoltageis.Anon-polarisedcapacitordoesnothaveapositiveornegative

side,meaningthatitdoesnotmatterhowyouplaceitinyourelectricalcircuit,itwillalwayswork.

Figure 5: Depiction of the way PNP transistorworks.

Figure 6: Image ofPNPtransistor

Figure7:Imageofcapacitor

Figure8:Depictionofhowcapacitorsstorepower

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1.2.3MemoryCells

Amemorycellisafundamentalpartofcomputerstorage.Itisusedtostoreabitofinformation,either

a1ora0.Therearemanytypesofmemorycellsthataremadeupofdifferentcomponents,though

themainprincipalstaysthesame,itstoresabit.

Forexample,SRAMusestheMOSmemorycellwhichconsistsof6transistors.Thesetransistorsare

usedtoformaFlip-Flopsystem.Thisbasicallyisonandoff,so1and0.

1.3GraphicsCard/GraphicsProcessingUnit

Thegraphicscarda.k.a.GPUcalculateswhatisshownonthescreen.Thisisoneofthemostexpensive

partswhenyoubuyacomputer.TheGPUlikemostothercomputerpartsalsohasHzspeeds.While

theyarelowerthantheGPU’sclockspeeds,theycanstillgoupto2GHz.Graphicscardshavethe

mostprocessingpowerinthecomputer.WhenpeoplelookatGPU,theywilloftenlookathowmany

TFLOPSitcandopersecond.FLOPmeaningFloatingPointOperation,thatmeansifitcan1TFLOP/sec

itisdoing1000000000000floatingpointoperationspersecond.FLOPScannotbecomparedtothe

term Hz. FLOPS describes the amount of

float/decimalnumbercalculations itcando

everysecondwhileHzdoesnotspecifyany

typeofcalculation.

TheGPUhasfastdatatransferspeedssince

itneedstocommunicatewiththeCPU.

Afloating-pointoperationisacalculationof

decimal numbers. AGPUhas thousands of

coresdoingthesecalculations.ThesecoresarequiteabitsmallercomparedtothoseintheCPU,but

theymakeup for it inquantity.CPUswith integratedgraphicsdoexistbut theyarenotanything

special.YouwouldundoubtedlyneedaGPUinyourcomputerifyouwereagraphicsdesigner,video

editoretc.

TheGPUhasitsownRAMknownasVRAM(VideoRandomAccessMemory).VRAMalsohasDouble-

DataRateTypesthatgoallthewaytoGDDR6(Graphics

DoubleDataRate6).ThemostcommontypeofVRAMis

also DRAM. GPUs tend to be made for more specific

tasks,likegraphicdesignersorgaming,butjustbecause

itwasmadeforworkdoesnotmeanitcannotgame.The

oppositeisalsotrue.

Figure9:ImageofaGraphicsCard

Figure10:Imageofagraphicscardwithoutitscooler.

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1.4Storage

StorageinthecomputerisimportantsinceitcontainstheOSandall

thedata storedon the computer.Most computers today shouldat

least500GBto1TBworthofstoragespace.Thedataisoftenstoredin

anHDD(HardDriveDisk)orSSD(SolidStateDrive).SSDsstoredata

similarly to RAM. They also use cells made of capacitors and

transistorstostorebitsofinformation.

HDDdisksstorebitsusingamagneticfilmthatisattachedoneachsideofthe

disk. This film has lots of zones that can have different magnetic states.

Dependingonthestateofthemagnet,itholdsa1ora0.AnHDDoftenhas

multipledisksinonedrive.Thedataisreadbytheheadofanarmthatcanread

andwritethedata.Somethingyoumustpayattentiontowhenlookingatthe

specsofa storagedevice is its readandwritespeed.This is importantas it

representsthespeedatwhichyourdevicecanstoreandloaddata.

1.4.1BitsandBytes

Abitisapieceofinformationthatthecomputercancomprehend.Asinglebitcaneitherbea1ora

0.Another representationof1and0 is true/false,+/-oron/off.Abit is justapulseofelectricity,

dependingonitsvoltageitisa0or1.Whileasinglebitdoesnotmeanmuch,asequenceofbitscan

meansomething.Otherunitsofinformationlikebytesarealsocommonlyused.Abyteisequalto8

bits,meaningeachbitcaneitherbea1ora0.Whileabitwouldsimplybea1,abytecanbe10100110.

Figure 13: Words thatindicatethenumberofbits

Largerdecimalunitsofinformationlikekilobyteorkilobitalsoexist.Onekilobitisexactly1000bits

whileonekilobyteis1000bytes.Otherbinarytypeunitsofinformationalsoexistlikekibibit,whichis

worth1024bitsor210bits.

Figure11:ImageofSSD

Figure12:ImageofHDDthatisopen(Theynormallydon’topenthisway)

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1.5Themotherboard/mainboard

Themotherboardconnectsallthecomputercomponents.TheRAM,CPUandGPUareallconnected

tothemotherboard.Thisboardalsocontrolstheflowofdatafromoneplacetoanother.

TheCPU isembedded in theCPUsocketonthemotherboard. Itcanberemovedandreplacedby

anothercompatibleCPU.MotherboardsaremanufacturedtobecompatiblewithcertainCPUssince

differentcompaniesproduceCPUswithdifferingsockettypes.

ItalsohasRAMslots;youcanalsoremovetheRAMand

replaceitwithothercompatibleRAMsticks.Lowquality

motherboardsoftenonlyhavearound2RAMslotswhile

themediumtohighqualitymotherboardshave4.

Attached at the bottom are one ormore PCI or PCIE

slots.TheseslotsarewhereyouwouldinserttheGPUor

anyotherextensioncards likeaudiocardsornetwork

cards(Wi-Ficard).

ThemotherboardalsohasSATAportsthatcanbeused

toconnecttoanSSDoranHDDviaaSATAcable.The

mainboardalsocomesalongwithNVMeslots,whichhasdatatransferspeedthatisquiteabitfaster

thanthatofaSATAconnection.NVMeisonlyusedtoconnecttoanSSD.NVMecanreachveryhigh

readandwritespeedsasitisplaceddirectlyplacedonthemotherboardwhileconventionalstorage

must be connected via a cable.While Iwill not explain the exact components of amotherboard,

everythingIhavementionedwillbeonanymodernmotherboard.Theexactspecificationsdependon

themodelandcangreatlyvary.

Figure14:Imageofamotherboard

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1.6Bottleneck

Bottleneckisexactlywhatitsoundslike.Itiswhenthepowerofyourcomputerislimitedbyonepart

thatisfarsuperiororinferiorcomparedtotheotherparts.

Having a balanced build is essential to having stable

performance.Forexample,iftheGPUinyourcomputeris

thelatestandthegreatestbuttherestofyourpartsare

olderandalowergrade.ThenpartsliketheCPUoreven

motherboard would not be able to keep up with your

super-fastGPU.Asthesayinggoes“Achain isonlyasstrongas itsweakest link”.Whenbuildinga

computer,makingsureyourpartsarecompatibleanddonothaveabottleneck,canbepainful.An

easysolutionforthisproblemisalreadythere.PartslikeGPUsandCPUsoftenhavegradingslikelow,

middle,andhigh.Forinstance,onecanfigureoutwhatgradeitisbysimplylookingatthenumbers.

AnexampleisNVIDIAwhereapartoftheGPU’snameindicatesthegrade.TheRTX3070isamid-level

GPUmade byNVIDIA. The 30 indicateswhich generation it is and 70 refers to themodel of the

generation.Oftentheweakestwillbe60then70andthen80.Sometimestheyhangsomethingelse

ontothe,buttheseareinherentindications.So,bycheckingitslevel,onecandrawaconclusionon

whichpartstobuy.

Note:Eachcompanydoesthisdifferentlysocheckinghowitdoesitsnamingwouldnothurtifyouwerecurrently

lookingtobuildyourowncomputer.

1.7Overclocking

When it comes to normal the use normal use of desktop

computers, overclocking is not necessary, but I decided to

throwitinanywaysbecauseitisinteresting.

Overclockingiswhenyouraisethebasecoreclocktomakeit

go faster. Often youwill get promising results, for instance

yourcomputermightdocomplicatedcalculationsinashorter

amountoftimeoryougetmoreframespersecondsinyour

video games. But what you must keep in mind when

overclockingisthatyouareatthesametimetakingarisk.Byoverclockingcertainparts,abigside

effectwouldalmostcertainlybeheat.Byraisingtheclockofyourcomponenttoohigh,therealsoisa

possibilityofasystemcrashthoughthiscanbeoneofthesmallerrisks.Byoverclockinganything,the

Figure15:Depictionofabottleneck

Figure16: Imageofnon-overclockedsettings inMSIAfterburner

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chancesofitbreakingsoonerorevenstraightawayget

higher. This is almost certainly proportional to how

muchyouoverclockthepart.Somepeopleevenseethis

as a contest, where they see how much they can

overclocktheircomputer.Thentheywouldtestitusing

aprogramthatwouldstrainthecomputer.Thisprogram

gives you results which you can compare to others

resultsviatheinternet.Insomecases,peoplehaveeven

overclocked their computers to the pointwhere they

usedliquidnitrogen(verycoldliquid)tocoolthem.

1.8Thelifespanofacomputer.

Thelifespanofacomputerisgreatlyinfluencedbymanythingslike,howoftenyouuseit,howyou

treatitandthestrainputontheparts.Onethingthatcanalsodrivedownthenumbersoftimesyour

computerwilllivetoseeanotherdayisheat.Computerpartcandeterioratemuchfasteriftheyare

atahighertemperature.Thispartlywhyoverclockingisnotexactlyhealthyforit.So,keepingyour

computerascoldaspossibleshouldbeapriority,sowhatIwouldnotrecommendisbuyingacheap

low-qualitycooler.

Figure 17: Image of overlocked settings in MSIAfterburner

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2Supercomputer

Asupercomputerisacomputerthathasamassiveamountofprocessingpower.Ittakesupahuge

amountofroomandelectricity.

ThesecomputersareusuallyusedforscientificpurposessuchaslookingforvaccinesforHIV,COVID-

19 and other hard to cure diseases.

Another very common use for

supercomputers is running an AI

(ArtificialIntelligence)program.

Asupercomputerisusuallycomposed

ofthousandsofcomputers,eachwith

theirowncomponents.Acomputerin

a cluster supercomputer is often

referredtoasanode.Onlyrichpeople

orcompanieswithalotofmoneycan

afford thesemassivecomputers.Most supercomputersaredesignedso that theyperformbestat

whattheyaresupposedtodo.Thisoftenmakesthemhaveauniquelayoutanddesignthatisnot

identicaltoothers,thoughatabriefglance,theyprobablylooksimilar.

2.1Howdoesasupercomputerwork?

Asupercomputerhandles tasks likehowmoderndesktopcomputersdomulti-threading, justona

muchlargerscale.Theretwotypesofsupercomputers,aclusterandagrid.Aclustersupercomputer

isoftenafacilitythatholdsthousandsofcomputersinalargeroom.

A grid supercomputer is more complicated; it is a supercomputer that is composed of lots of

computersthatareconnectedtotheinternet.Eachofthesecomputershasasoftwareinstalledonit

thatconnectsittothegrid.Anyonecanconnecttoagridiftheydownloadandlaunchthepublished

software.

Technicallythedefinitionofasupercomputerisjust“Acomputerthathasfarmorepowerthanan

averageperson’scomputer”.So,thismeansasupercomputertechnicallydoesnothavetobeacluster

orgridoflotsofnodes.Thoughpracticallyachievingthis,islightlyputextremelydifficult.Thoughthat

does not mean it is impossible. One good example is quantum computers; these machines can

calculatethingsthatwouldtakeevensupercomputersyears.I’llexplaintheseinabitmoredetailina

laterchapter.

Figure18:ImageofFugakusupercomputer

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2.1.1Parallelprocessing

Asupercomputerworksbysplittingitsworkamongthecomputersthatareconnectedtoit.Thisis

calledparallelprocessing;multi-threadingisalsoatypeof

parallelprocessing.Thetasksarenotdividedintocoresbut

intowholecomputers.

Conventionalprogramsdonotuseparallelprocessing,they

use serial processing. Serial processing is when the

computerdoesitstasksoneafteranotherwhileinparallel

processing,thecomputercomputeseachtaskatthesame

time.Parallelprocessingisveryeffectivewhenitcomesto

using it in the supercomputers, the time it takes to

completeataskissignificantlyshorter.Thisisbecauseparallelprocessingcantakeadvantageofthe

computer’smanynodes.

Parallelprocessingcansometimesbeslowerthanserialprocessingwhenitcomestosometasks.One

majorfactorthatslowsitdownisthatcombiningtheresultsfromeachprocesscantakesomuchtime

tothepointwhereserialprocessingisfaster.Thisishoweveroftennotthecase.

Whenbuildingasupercomputer,onewouldhavetowriteaprogramthatdistributesitstasksamong

itsnodes.Theprogrammustalsobeabletoputthedatabacktogetherwhenitreceivesitsresults

fromtheindividualnodes.

2.2Usesforsupercomputers.

Supercomputershavevarioususeslikelookingforcuresfordiseasesorpredictingtheweather.But

somemighthaveamoreunexpectedusefulness.Theonesdescribedinthisnextpartaresomevery

commonusesforsupercomputers.Whiletherearemanymoreuses,Iamtryingtokeepthingssimple.

2.2.1Cryptomining

Iamsureyouhaveheardofcryptocurrenciesandtheirpracticaluseontheinternet.Supercomputers

canbeusedto“Mine”thesecryptocurrencies.Sincecryptocurrenciesdonothavecentralbanks,to

do things like confirming the validity of the money that is being transferred, crypto mining was

invented. To keep it simple, to check the validity of money, a supercomputer is used. This

supercomputer is a grid typewhich anyone can connect to if they download and run the correct

software.Anyonewhobecomesapartofthegrid,willberewardedformakingsurethemoneyisnot

Figure 19: Depiction of the difference betweenprocessingmethods

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somehowbeingmessedwithinanillegalway.Whywouldyouneedasupercomputer?Thewaythis

moneyisverified,simplyput,isthroughverylongandhardguesswork.Toachievethegoalofguessing

largenumbersquickly,supercomputersarethebestsolution.Mostofthetime,themaincomponent

usedinthesecryptomininggridsisagraphicscard.Whenitcomestorawpowerthegraphicscardfar

outperforms the processor and is therefore better suited for this job. Every year when a new

generation of graphics cards is released into the

market,alotofthemgotocryptominers.Theyear

2020isaveryextremeexamplewherepeoplewere

writing programs that would buy graphics card as

soonastheywereinstock.Theresultwasthatthere

wereno cards left and that peoplewere re-selling

themformorethandoubletheoriginalprice.

2.2.2Simulations

Asupercomputerhasmanyuseswhenitcomestoscientifictasks.Oneofthemissimulatingthings.

Theyhave the capability to simulate things likenewmaterials, thehumanbrainsandmanymore

things.Oneexampleisthetestingofnuclearweaponstest.Since1992,theUSAhasbannedthetesting

ofnuclearweapons.Thebestalternativeeversincehasbeensimulatingthem.Bysimulatingnuclear

explosions,theycanconfirmtheweapons“safety”andfunctionality.

Bysimulatingbrains, researcherscan figureouthowthebrainworks.Thiscanhelp themconduct

virtualpsychiatrictreatments.TheymayevenbeabletomakeanAIusingthissimulatedbrain.ASwiss

supercomputermanagedtosimulatea10000-neuronchunkofaratbrain.Theyhopetosomeday

makeacompletemodelofthehumanbrain.

2.3Supercomputerspecs

Just like normal computers, supercomputers also have specs or specifications. For some this is

obvious,butIthoughtIshouldpointthisjusttobesure.Asupercomputerisoftenratedbasedonits

FLOPperformance.ThisFLOPisthesamekindIexplainedearlierforthegraphicscard.Meaningthat

themoreFLOPsa supercomputercandoper second, thebetter it is.While theperformanceofa

graphicscardismeasuredinTeraflops/s(TeraFloatingPointOperationspersecond),asupercomputer

isusually ismeasuredwithPetaflops/s(PetaFloatingPointOperationspersecond).Toexplainthe

unitsofmeasurementusedhere,Terameanstrillion(1012)andPetameansQuadrillion(1015).The

sheerpowerthesecomputershaveissimplyputinsane.Thisalsostandstoreasonasthepricefor

thesemachinesisalsoludicrous.AperfectexampleistheFukagusupercomputer.Itsperformanceis

around400to500petaflops.Youdonothavetobeespeciallybrighttoknowthatthisisalot.

Figure20:Imageofacryptominingrig

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This might just be me pointing out the obvious, but components used in the computers are

proportionaltoitsawesomeperformanceandprice.UsingthesupercomputerFukaguagain,asingle

nodeofthissupercomputeralreadyhasmind-blowingspecswhencomparedtoanyhomecomputer.

Itboatsalargecomputationalcapacitywithits32GBmemory.Whilethememorysizemightnotbe

mind-blowing(itisstillmuchlargerthanyouraveragecomputer),itsspeedmostdefinitelyis.Ithasa

speedof1024GB/sreadandwritespeed.Ithas48processingcoresandalargeandrapidcache.Its

L1hasaloadspeedof256GB/sandwritespeedof128GB/s.TheL1hasevenfasterspeedswithits

4TB/s loadand2TB/swritespeed.So, ifyouthinkabout it,thousandsofcomputersthathavethe

performanceandpriceofahigh-endgamingcomputer;itmakescompletesensethatsupercomputers

canreachtheseludicrousspeedsandprices.

ThelistcalledTOP500liststheworld’s500fastestsupercomputers.Asupercomputer’splaceinthis

listisbasedontheirnumbercrunchingpowera.k.a.FLOP/s.Abenchmarkprogramisusedtotestthe

computer’scapabilities.

2.4Smallsupercomputerlist

Idecidedtocompilealistofsomepopularorrelevantsupercomputersthatexistnow.

2.4.1Fugaku

TheJapanesesupercomputerFukaguistheworld’sfastestsupercomputer.ItwasfinishedinMay2020

afterbeingconceivedin2014.ItwasmadeasacollaborationbetweenFujitsuandRIKEN.Ithasslightly

morethandoubletheperformancethanthesecondplace

inthelistwhichisIBM’sSummitsupercomputer.

Ithasatotalof158,976nodes.Thisamountstoaround488

petaflops (That is a lot). A single node has 48 processor

cores.Itsmemoryhasthelargecapacityof32GB.Itsread

andwritespeedis1024GB/s.ItrunsaversionoftheLinux

operatingsystemlikemostsupercomputers.TheCPUusedthesenodesistheA64FXmadespecifically

forthiscluster.AsingleCPUcontains48cores,whichhaveabaseclockof1.8GHz.Eachcorehasan

L1iandL1dcache,whicheachhave64KBofcapacity.IthasfoursetsofL2cacheseachassignedto13

cores.EachL2cachehas8MBofcapacity.

Upuntilnow,ithasmainlybeenusedforscientificandmedicalpurposes.Ithasworkedonsolutions

likecoronamaskefficiencyandtsunamiwavesimulationstoforecastfloodsinJapan.Itwasalsoable

tofullyanalysecancergenesinlessthanonedaywhichusedtotakeasignificantlylongertimewith

anyothersupercomputer.

Figure21:ImageoftheFugakusupercomputer

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2.4.2Meluxina

This supercomputer isnotactuallycompletedyetand it isnotgoing tobe thenewbestone.The

reason I am putting this in the list is because it is something quite relevant to thosewho live in

Luxembourgas itwillbebuiltthere. Itwillbethecountry’smostpowerfulsupercomputer.Witha

speed of 10 petaflops per second, this

supercomputer cannot be called slow by any

means. The company building this computer is

called LuxConnect. The government also has a

hand in the supercomputer’s construction. They

plan to make the cooling mechanism as

environmentallyfriendlyaspossible.Itsmainuse

isgoingtobetoresearchnewtechnologiesforthe

industry.A companynamed IEEplans touse it to simulate things like amaterial’s strength. One

exampleissimulatingmaterialsfortheautomotiveindustry.MeluxinaisapartofEurope’sEuroHPC

initiative tobuild8supercomputersacrossEurope.ThesesupercomputerswillmakeEuropemore

competitiveinresearchfieldslikescience,medicine,climatechange,etc.

2.4.3Summit

Summit is a supercomputer made by IBM and NVIDIA. It is the world’s second most powerful

supercomputerwith4608nodes.Thesupercomputercostaround400-600milliondollars.

Asinglenodehas2IBMPOWER9CPUsand6NVIDIATeslaV100GPUs.Asinglenodehasatotalof

600GBofDRAM.Italsohasanadditional800GBofnon-volatileRAM.TheIBMPOWER9canhaveup

24cores,anditcanhaveupto96threadsdependingonthespecificmodel.IthasaL1iandL1dcache

of32KB.ItsL2cachehasasize512MB.TheL3hasacapacityof120MB.TheCPUcanhaveaclock

speedof4GHz.TheNVIDIATeslaV100candoaround7.8Teraflops.Ithas32or16GBofmemory

dependingonthemodel.Asinglecardconsumesaround300wattsofelectricity.

The supercomputer has a total of 5.5296

Petabytes of memory and 27648 GPUs (NVIDIA

TeslaV100),and9216CPUs(IBMPOWER9).

Thesupercomputercandoaround148petaflops.

It is going to research things like artificial

intelligence, fusion energy, cancer, and many

morethingsthatcanbenefitoursociety.

Figure22:ImageoftheMeluxinasupercomputer

Figure23:ImageoftheSummitsupercomputer

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2.4.4HPC5

HPC5 is a supercomputer located in Italy. It currently holds the 8th place in the TOP500 list. Its

performanceisaround70petaflops.Itwasbuiltby

thecomputercompanyDELL.

Thecomputerhasa totalof3640 IntelXeonGold

6252CPUs,7280NVIDIATeslaV100GPU.TheXeon

hasatotalof24cores,itsbaseclockis2.1GHzwhile

its boost clock is 2.8GHz. Its architecture size is

14nm.Eachofcorehas32KBofL1cacheand1MB

ofL2cache.TheentireCPUhas35MBofL3cache.

2.5QuantumSupercomputers

Quantumcomputingisstillatechnologythatisinitsearlystagesandcannotbeappliedproperlyyet.

Butbecauseitisinteresting,IthoughtIwouldincludeitanyways.Thewayquantumcomputerswork

is fundamentally different to conventional computers. Unlike normal computers that use bits to

representinformation,quantum

computers use something

known as a qubit. The quality

thatmakesaqubitdifferfroma

normal bit is the way it can

represent information. Both

typescanbeeither1or0,buta

qubit can be something in-

between,meaningitcanbeboth

a1anda0atthesametime.This

type of computing is very

complicatedandhardtounderstand,butessentiallyaquantumcomputercantheoreticallycalculate

thingsveryfastbecauseofthespecialqualityabithas.

Therearecaseswhereresearcherssuccessfullycompletedquantumcomputationsthatwouldhave

takenanynormalcomputerhundredsifnotthousandsofyears.

Figure24:ImageoftheHPC5supercomputer

Figure25:Imageofaquantumcomputer

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WordExplanations

a.k.a.=alsoknownas

CPU=CentralProcessingUnit

GPU=GraphicsProcessingUnit

OS=OperatingSystem

FLOP=FloatingPointOperation

RAM=RandomAccessMemory

NVIDIA=Acompanythatmakescomputerhardware

GB/s=Gigabytespersecond;thisdescribestheflowofdata,eitherwriteorread

Hz=thenumberoftimessomethingrepeatseverysecond

Conclusion

Tosumeverythingup,supercomputersaremainly justultrapowerfulcomputersusedforscience.

Theyarebigandexpensive,andtheaveragepersoncouldnotaffordone,eveniftheysavedalltheir

money for their entire life. But in return for the size and price, they offer a huge amount of

performanceandpower.Theymakenormalcomputerpaleincomparison.WhileIdidwritealotabout

normalcomputers, itwassoyoucouldunderstandallthosewordsIwroteinthesecondpart, like

Petaflops. I personally think that all of this is extremely interesting, and if this also caught your

attention,thenIrecommenddoingsomeresearchontheinternetasthisdoesnotcovereverything

byfar.SomethingthatreallysurprisedmewhenIwasresearchingforthis,isthesheercomputational

powerthesecomputershave.WhileIknewthesecomputerswerepowerful,Ididn’tthinktheywould

betothisextent.Thissubject isespecially interestingtome,as Iwould liketoworkwithartificial

intelligenceinmyfuturejob.Thankyouforreadingmytravailpersonnelallthewaytotheend.This

tookalotoftimeandeffortandIhopeyoulearnedsomethingnew.

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