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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 us

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
insulanus 8y ago
Also particle physics simulation and data crunching. https://www.ci.uchicago.edu/research/cern https://www.ci.uchicago.edu/research/cern

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

insulanus 8y ago

Also particle physics simulation and data crunching. https://www.ci.uchicago.edu/research/cern https://www.ci.uchicago.edu/research/cern