4 ms·

Japan Tests Silicon for Exascale Computing in 2021

63 points by AliCollins 8y ago

ssijak 8y ago
What are they using it for? Or other ~100 petaflops supercomputers?
- jarfil 8y ago
  "Supercomputers play an important role in the field of computational science, and are used for a wide range of computationally intensive tasks in various fields, including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), and physical simulations (such as simulations of the early moments of the universe, airplane and spacecraft aerodynamics, the detonation of nuclear weapons, and nuclear fusion). Throughout their history, they have been essential in the field of cryptanalysis." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer
- zekrioca 8y ago
  among other things, to go to Mars
- mitchty 8y ago
  Hi, I work at a supercomputer company. A short list of things I know our customers use them for: - secret spy/tla stuff (no i have no idea what they're used for either) - simulating nuclear blasts to know if the bombs we have will work or have issues - simulating decay of those bombs (safety first!) - simulating weather - geological work to find say oil - biology simulation for protein folding and understanding things like cancer Thats all I can think of off the top of my head, but generally, they get used for whenever you have a lot of computation that generates a ton of data and then works on that data.
  - arcanus 8y ago
    Lots of good material science also performed. And don't forget fundamental science, such as cosmology.
    - mitchty 8y ago
      Indeed, that list is all I could brain up on the spot is all. >.<
      - agumonkey 8y ago
        - simulating brains
  - saltcured 8y ago
    For a sufficiently broad definition of supercomputer, you'd want to add so many other science and engineering simulation problems: fluid dynamics, controlled and uncontrolled combustion, geophysics and seismology, hydrology, structures and finite-element analysis, crowds and swarms, etc. Astrophysics is also a close cousin to nuclear weapons research, simulating high energies and pressures, a mixture of nuclear, chemical, and physical interactions, turbulent fluid dynamics, shock waves, etc. In some sense, we can assume the high end of supercomputing is always applicable to increasing the (spatial or temporal) resolution of any existing grid-based model or the scope/extent of nearly any model (e.g. simulate a larger area/volume/complex structure or system). Another easy way to soak up computational resources is in coupling of models, e.g. combine your weather or simulation with pollutant tracking, ocean current simulation, gas transfer between the ocean and atmosphere, and so on.
  - dghughes 8y ago
    I was watching the documentary HyperNormalization and at 1:12:00 it was mentioned Larry Fink built one of the first "supercomputers" (at least a large system for its time). It was used for risk analysis it was built in 1986. The company was BlackRock and the computer was called Aladdin. https://youtu.be/-fny99f8amM?t=4320 https://youtu.be/-fny99f8amM?t=4320
  - 8y ago
- have_faith 8y ago
  Rendering electron apps... but seriously, as well as the list of uses someone else pointed out, it's the kind of thing that the more you have the more uses you will find. What's it's called again where demand is static (but not maxed out) until supply increases and then demand increases to compensate and soak up additional supply?
  - PopePompus 8y ago
    One of the things that amazes me is that it is still not possible to do an ab initio quantum mechanics calculation of the rotational spectrum of even a diatomic molecule with sufficient accuracy to allow identification from measured spectra. Two atoms, and we can't precisely calculate the spectrum. There's lots of room for more computing power.
    - have_faith 8y ago
      > ab initio quantum mechanics calculation of the rotational spectrum That's not a sequence of words my brain was prepared to parse :)
- ramgorur 8y ago
  I work on a project related to combustion and fuel efficiency and we need to run thousands to fluid mechanics simulations/FEA on the cluster computing facility in our university. Sometimes they go like weeks to finish, a powerful clsuter machine will definitely speed up everything.
stcredzero 8y ago
For now, the future belongs to the integration of many smaller dies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3kGSbWFig4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3kGSbWFig4

63 points by AliCollins 8y ago

ssijak 8y ago

What are they using it for? Or other ~100 petaflops supercomputers?

jarfil 8y ago
"Supercomputers play an important role in the field of computational science, and are used for a wide range of computationally intensive tasks in various fields, including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties of chemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals), and physical simulations (such as simulations of the early moments of the universe, airplane and spacecraft aerodynamics, the detonation of nuclear weapons, and nuclear fusion). Throughout their history, they have been essential in the field of cryptanalysis." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer
zekrioca 8y ago
among other things, to go to Mars
mitchty 8y ago
Hi, I work at a supercomputer company. A short list of things I know our customers use them for: - secret spy/tla stuff (no i have no idea what they're used for either) - simulating nuclear blasts to know if the bombs we have will work or have issues - simulating decay of those bombs (safety first!) - simulating weather - geological work to find say oil - biology simulation for protein folding and understanding things like cancer Thats all I can think of off the top of my head, but generally, they get used for whenever you have a lot of computation that generates a ton of data and then works on that data.
- arcanus 8y ago
  Lots of good material science also performed. And don't forget fundamental science, such as cosmology.
  - mitchty 8y ago
    Indeed, that list is all I could brain up on the spot is all. >.<
    - agumonkey 8y ago
      - simulating brains
- saltcured 8y ago
  For a sufficiently broad definition of supercomputer, you'd want to add so many other science and engineering simulation problems: fluid dynamics, controlled and uncontrolled combustion, geophysics and seismology, hydrology, structures and finite-element analysis, crowds and swarms, etc. Astrophysics is also a close cousin to nuclear weapons research, simulating high energies and pressures, a mixture of nuclear, chemical, and physical interactions, turbulent fluid dynamics, shock waves, etc. In some sense, we can assume the high end of supercomputing is always applicable to increasing the (spatial or temporal) resolution of any existing grid-based model or the scope/extent of nearly any model (e.g. simulate a larger area/volume/complex structure or system). Another easy way to soak up computational resources is in coupling of models, e.g. combine your weather or simulation with pollutant tracking, ocean current simulation, gas transfer between the ocean and atmosphere, and so on.
- dghughes 8y ago
  I was watching the documentary HyperNormalization and at 1:12:00 it was mentioned Larry Fink built one of the first "supercomputers" (at least a large system for its time). It was used for risk analysis it was built in 1986. The company was BlackRock and the computer was called Aladdin. https://youtu.be/-fny99f8amM?t=4320 https://youtu.be/-fny99f8amM?t=4320
- 8y ago
have_faith 8y ago
Rendering electron apps... but seriously, as well as the list of uses someone else pointed out, it's the kind of thing that the more you have the more uses you will find. What's it's called again where demand is static (but not maxed out) until supply increases and then demand increases to compensate and soak up additional supply?
- PopePompus 8y ago
  One of the things that amazes me is that it is still not possible to do an ab initio quantum mechanics calculation of the rotational spectrum of even a diatomic molecule with sufficient accuracy to allow identification from measured spectra. Two atoms, and we can't precisely calculate the spectrum. There's lots of room for more computing power.
  - have_faith 8y ago
    > ab initio quantum mechanics calculation of the rotational spectrum That's not a sequence of words my brain was prepared to parse :)
ramgorur 8y ago
I work on a project related to combustion and fuel efficiency and we need to run thousands to fluid mechanics simulations/FEA on the cluster computing facility in our university. Sometimes they go like weeks to finish, a powerful clsuter machine will definitely speed up everything.

stcredzero 8y ago

For now, the future belongs to the integration of many smaller dies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3kGSbWFig4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3kGSbWFig4